


Be the Change

by slowburning



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24787879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slowburning/pseuds/slowburning
Summary: Once a freedom fighter, always a freedom fighter - turning down an invitation to join Overwatch and help protect the world from the nastiest of oppressors wasn't something Lucio could do in good conscience. New faces, new excitement, and a sense of urgency that he hadn't felt since he set out to free his people. The test of his will, loyalty, and sanity were put on the line now and there were a handful of people willing to guide him on his path as well as keep a semblance of balance in his mind; it was time to pick a side and fight for what he believed in.
Relationships: Lúcio Correia dos Santos/Genji Shimada
Comments: 9
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing in set in stone for this fanfiction, it partially runs off canon material however considering there is only so much to go off of as far as the present day canon lore goes, I am almost entirely making my own interpretation; this fanfiction was started before the announcement and gameplay release of Overwatch 2. The content we have so far of the sequel will be tied in to the best of my ability, however I can make no guarantees of being able to line up perfectly with canon. I apologize for any future rating changes, warning changes, pairing changes, tag changes, or possible halts in uploads. I am also a major slow burn writer, so it may take a good while before any content you might be here for even gets touched on.
> 
> Enjoy!

**D** eep breaths, in and out. Relax. Just chill.

He had no reason to be nervous, not after he so eagerly accepted this invitation. Helping people, making the world feel good... it was just in his nature, after all. But something still made his heart pound in his chest, rattling him to the very core. He absolutely wasn't regretting the decision he made, not at all and he definitely wasn't having any second thoughts. Perhaps it was just the idea of suddenly jumping into this head first into something he was positive may or may not get him killed - though, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t done something so incredibly reckless before in his past.

Swallowing at the thought, he pursed his lips together, gripping the bag slung loosely over his shoulder tightly for a moment. It wasn't like he could run off now anyway, he was quite literally at the doorstep of his new home. Put on a smile, cheer up! Why be so doom and gloom when he knew he was going to make the entire planet a better place through whatever efforts he could make, after all?

He willed himself to shake off the nerves with the pep talk that ran laps through his head and took a confident step forward, adjusting the bags in his hands as he moved. It was only a couple weeks ago that he was confronted about these matters.

They asked him not because they wanted just another body on the field, but because they knew he'd make an impact on what they were trying to achieve.

...That's what he liked to believe, anyway. It helped him sleep through the night up to this point.

He reached out, ready to open the door before him at his own leisure when he was interrupted by it opening itself up, allowing him access inside of the base. He couldn't help but jump a little bit, a crooked, unnerved smile making its way on his face. He didn't even let other people open the door for him let alone the door opening itself for him, he always made a point to take the door for them and let them pass before him.

_"Welcome, Lucio Correia dos Santos."_

A rather calming, feminine voice played through unseen speakers within the walls of the shelter. He stammered for a moment, trying his best to find his words.

Wait, how was he supposed to talk to a room?

"’Lucio’ should be just fine, Athena."  
The sound of a deep, almost gruff voice echoing through the chamber made his ears perk.

He took a couple more steps in, taking a chance to peek around the corner of the doorway. He gave a slight laugh as he noticed the scientist seated in a large tire that fit him just right, eyes scanning intently over an array of monitors of a makeshift computer setup on the floor in front of himself in a slight moment of awe - he’d seen his fair share of tech in his day, but just the idea of watching all of those monitors day in and day out made his head spin.

"Oh, uh… yeah, Lucio's just fine. If I'm gonna be stayin' here for the time being, might as well throw being formal out the window entirely, right?"

_"Of course. My apologies, Lucio."_

The gorilla finally tore himself away from his monitors enough to push himself out of the tire and turn his attention to Lucio, giving him a small smile before padding up to him with heavy footsteps.

"Sorry for the mess. Ever since the attacks from Talon on Gibraltar, I needed to quickly relocate to a safer area... this one just happened to feel like the safest conditions for any and all agents that will be joining us."

"It's no problem at all Winston," his head cocked off to the side slightly, his grin never leaving his face, "you make it seem like people will be in shambles over not getting the absolute best or something." He gave a nervous chuckle at that, casting his gaze elsewhere for the moment.

"I can't help but feel a little bit worried. I realize some agents may expect certain conditions to be met," Winston gave a wary look, causing Lucio to frown a little bit and reach up to pat his shoulder.

"Hey, we're here for a reason and it's not to be in the lap of absolute luxury. It'll be hard, but that's what comes with it, right?” The DJ attempted to quell the mammal’s worries with a calm and collected smile before it disappeared, being replaced with a look of concern. “Besides that, are you alright? You look completely worn down."

"Do I? I haven't had much sleep, but I wasn't expecting anyone to notice--"

"What do you mean _haven't had much sleep?_ "

"Well, I've been making sure the entire perimeter of this watchpoint is safe with Athena's help for the past couple days and--"

"Whoa, we can stop right there, big guy. You need to get some rest. I know you're worried that someone might jump this place and I can't promise everything will be completely fine but if anything does happen, you'll be the first one to be told, got it? Athena probably agrees with me, you need at least a few hours to let your body recuperate."

_"Lucio is right, Winston. Your heart rate has been extremely high ever since we arrived here. While that is to be expected, it would be unfortunate for you to be incapacitated if anything were to happen."_

Winston opened his mouth to argue, but only gave a small huff and proceeded to seat himself on the floor in front of Lucio with a large thud echoing throughout the open space.

"I understand that you both mean well--"

"I'm not takin' no for an answer, Winston."

The DJ stated, barely letting the other get a word out as he set his bags on the ground, rummaging through one of them to pull out his not only his sonic amplifier, but a large speaker that he’d wear on his back during combat situations.

"Don't make me play somethin' I know will get you to sleep."

Lucio idly threatened with his grin widening a little bit. Winston merely pouted much like a child would after being told it was nap-time.

"I'm not sleeping, there's too much to do right now."

_"If you require a power source, Lucio, there is a port in the wall behind you."_

"Athena--!"

It was too late. Lucio had already shoved the cord to his arsenal of choice into the outlet and slid back over to Winston all while pulling on the glove he used to control the device, shifting through the playlist of music he developed but never premiered or showed off very often. Subtle, soft music began playing through the speaker of the device, pumping out a calming melody that seemed to immediately take effect on the gorilla before him. Lucio knew the poor guy was tired to begin with... a little music was all that was needed to knock him out for a short while.

As Winston grumbled and quietly curled up on the floor, Lucio placed the devices on the floor next to him to continue pumping out the soothing music as he slept. A smile found its way on his face as he hopped up and headed over to the tire-chair on the floor in front of the monitors, seating himself on the edge of it awkwardly, glancing across all of them. One side held security cameras while the other seemed to be running through information of Overwatch agents, new and old. He wouldn't snoop of course... he was more curious in the camera feed. Might as well keep an eye on everything while Winston was out. He had little to no idea who else would be arriving alongside him that day, nor did he know if he were the very last to arrive as he had to take extra precautions with getting to the secluded location.

Lucio, himself, knew very little of Overwatch. Only what they had done to earn the admiration of the public and their fall from grace with a scandal that he didn't entirely have the guts to look into. He shifted on the tire a little bit, crossing his legs in the process as he rested his elbows on his knees, one of his thumbs pushing on his bottom lip idly.

_"Lucio, I am able to keep a watch for danger if you wish to take your equipment to the room we have set up for you."_

The DJ glanced up at the ceiling as though to look Athena in the eyes as a small smile and a chuckle escaped him.

"Nah, it's totally fine. I'm more than happy to give a helping hand for the time being. Plus I'm curious to see who else shows up... not that I know a whole lotta people from this group, but--"

_"Surely you know one Hana Song, correct? She has not arrived yet, but she will be joining us for our missions."_

"Oh, whoa whoa. The number one starcraft player and streamer?! I love her, she's so cool and so sweet to her fans! I’ve donated so many times to her stream!" Lucio was practically grinning from ear to ear; God knows he'd be starstruck as soon as he came face to face with her, "how'd you guess?"

_"Her fanbase ranges from all ages. I was merely making an educated guess."_

"More like you somehow read my mind."

_"You flatter my programmed deduction skills, Lucio."_

He leaned back a little bit, giggling a little bit to himself, mind suddenly racing. What should he say to her? Should he ask for an autograph? Ahhh, it was just so amazing to know he'd be fighting alongside such an amazingly skilled person!

In his moment of distraction, he hadn't heard the door just a few feet away slide open. Only when Athena spoke again did he pick up on the footsteps that echoed inside.

_"Welcome back, Genji. Welcome, Tekhartha Zenyatta."_

Lucio's hands gripped at the shins of his legs as he arched his body to get a look at the newcomers from beyond the surrounding monitors practically entrapping him, a curious look in his eyes as he noticed immediately they both appeared to be omnics. Maybe? One of them was definitely an omnic but the other just seemed like... he was wearing armor?

"Thank you, Athena. It is nice to hear your voice again, it has been quite a long time."

His voice didn’t sound entirely inhuman. It was actually surprisingly soothing to hear it - it seemed dignified, calm though… a hint of rebellious nature maybe? That was something Lucio himself knew all too well so… maybe omnic? Maybe a person? He really couldn't tell... this was making his head hurt.

"Greetings, Athena. Genji has told me much about you with his stories about Blackwatch and Overwatch."

 _"All good things, I am hoping,"_ Athena paused as if to give Genji a look, who merely tilted his head off to the side a little bit, _"it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Tekhartha Zenyatta."_

"Please, call me Zenyatta."

_"Of course."_

Lucio found himself fidgeting a little bit. He felt a little bit nervous about introducing himself for some strange reason... but he had to do it sooner or later, right? Quick like a bandaid, the possible pain will be over quick. He proceeded to roll himself off the tire and stand up, properly revealing himself as he gave a small, stiff wave.

"Hello, hello." He gave a cheerful greeting while he carefully stepped past everything, "I'm Luci ** _WHOA--!_** "

Well, apparently he hadn't stepped carefully enough as his foot became entangled with one of the messily placed wires on the floor, causing him to not only trip but knock one of the monitors over. Okay, okay, okay think fast. What's more important? Bracing yourself for impact or the tech? The tech, of course, catch it you fool!

His hands shot out as he was in the middle of his tumble, desperately reaching out to stop the monitor from crashing into the concrete floor while he squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting impact.

Waiting…

… Still waiting...

… Anything? No, nothing happened.

In fact, he felt pretty weightless at the moment if he had to admit... other than the weird pressure around his midsection.

"Perhaps you should look where you are stepping. Winston was certainly in a rush to set all of this up."

The robotic yet very human voice spoke eerily close to him and his eyes cracked open nervously to see the monitor having been caught just by the tips of his fingers. He gave an exasperated sigh of relief as he gently pushed it back to its upright position.

"--Wait, am I being held?"

"My apologies. I did not wish to see you become injured."

Lucio glanced back to come face-to-face with the one who's species he wasn't entirely sure of, then down at his body to see his arms wrapped securely around his torso. Genji helped push the cord from around his foot and steady him to be absolutely positive he wasn't going to end up tumbling over anyway.

" _Nonono_ , you don't gotta apologize or anything! It was my fault and I'm thankful for the help-- I swear I'm usually way more uh… balanced than this--!"

"Before you get caught in rambling, you were introducing yourself?" There was a clear tone of amusement in Genji's voice, causing Lucio's face to heat up in pure embarrassment.

"Lucio Correia dos Santos or uh... just Lucio. I swear, I had a better introduction planned in my head," he shouldn't be so nervous now. He's tripped up in front of millions of people in concert before and just brushed it off... maybe it's because these people wouldn't be strangers and he wanted to make a good impression on them. Yeah, that was probably it. "You're Japanese, right? I think I'm getting that right so uh... I need to bow rather than shove my hand at you or do what's normal for where I'm from," which would involve getting closer than they just were so he's retreated immediately from that, "so--"

"There is no need for that, Lucio. Don't worry."

"We are more than happy to keep everything calm and casual. You are clearly tense from your small blunder and it is best to diffuse that as best we can," the omnic glided up to the two of them. He had to admit, it almost looked like Zenyatta was giving him a calming smile, one that he couldn't help but return, "as Athena said earlier, I am Tekhartha Zenyatta. You are more than welcome to call me Zenyatta."

"I am Genji Shimada. It will be a pleasure working with you on missions, Lucio. If I remember correctly, you work with audio waves to assist allies in combat. I am curious to hear about it sometime, if you do not mind sharing," he seemed to glance over at the sleeping gorilla from within his visor, "I can only assume you were the one to help Winston get some rest with the aid of your music."

Lucio couldn't help but allow a short chuckle to escape him while he rubbed at the back of his neck, "the guy was about to topple over. He needs the rest." He paused, giving the two another look over, "it's nice to meet you both, it really is. I'd be more than happy to show both of ya what I've got in my arsenal once things are more 'lax around here."

"Thank you. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us," Genji hummed, tilting his head in a small bow.

_"Genji, you remember where the living quarters of the watchpoint are, correct?"_

"Yes, Athena. Thank you,” Genji paused as he turned his attention back to Zenyatta, “Come, master. I'm sure you need some rest; the journey from Nepal wasn't exactly easy, after all."

"You are worrying far too much, Genji. A journey is only a more defined form of wandering and I never tire of seeing what the world holds no matter what my destination leads me through."

As the two left the room, heading down a nearby staircase, Lucio couldn't help the bemused grin that graced his face. He crossed his arms, giving a gentle hum before wandering back over to the tire himself and seating himself upon it. Just from that little experience, he was sure to meet a colorful cast of individuals here.

Oh, how his heart pounded with excitement to know what everyone was made of!


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure you are not tired, Master? Powering down for the night would be the best course of action right now, would it not?"

Genji's voice was laced with concern for his mentor as he set their bags down beside the beds provided, seating himself moments after while Zenyatta allowed his body to descend closer to the ground next to the window that poured in artificial daylight, relaxing his robotic joints as he prepared for meditation.

"I am perfectly fine, Genji. Your fears and worry have no place here. While the sun is in the sky, I am as well," Zenyatta dismissed his concerns, as he knew full well that he was perfectly fine, knowing his body's limits like the back of his hand. This, however, did not quell Genji's troubled state. 

He could suppress it for the time being, not wanting to cause any discourse between the two of them. He trusted Zenyatta to know what was best for himself, he'd proven that time and time again. But he still had trouble not fretting over the omnic who helped him find inner peace; he felt he owed a great debt to him even despite being told time and time again he owed him nothing. To show such resounding kindness to someone so filled with rage and inner turmoil... Genji knew he if his younger self were face with the same challenge, he would have simply ignored it; though, that was part of his downfall and near death by his own brothers hands.

The ninja allowed a small sigh, reaching to the back of his head to undo the clasps of his visor, setting it on the mattress beside him. He ran his fingers under his jawline, feeling for the clasps there to remove the face mask he rarely saw reason in removing other than the brief comfort of feeling air brushing against his bare, scarred skin. Angela always advised against keeping the mask off for prolonged periods of time, as his lungs held permanent damage from the attack his brother inflicted upon him. The mask assisted his breathing. Keeping it off for too long would result in possible suffocation due to his lungs collapsing and failing to take in enough oxygen to sustain his body, from what she said. But taking it off for up to three hours tops would never hurt him. There was, of course, a short moment of discomfort rattling his body with the removal, but it was just himself adjusting to the brief time without the assistance.

He licked his scarred, chapped lips for a moment as he peered out the window behind his master, eyes glancing across the grate and streaks of light that made themselves known. Genji always found it a strange aesthetic choice to add these faux portholes in the underground living quarters of this particular watchpoint. There were light fixtures above them, what made the windows so special? Perhaps just to keep any anxious individuals from feeling closed off from the world or to just assist with telling one it was day or night.

It had been such a long time since he'd been at one of Overwatch's defunct watchpoints and while the change of scenery was mildly jarring, it almost felt like a place of sanctuary. The memories that came back to him were not always pleasant ones, but they were recallings of the people who saved his life nonetheless. The more he thought about being in this operation, the more he wondered what they were up against. Winston's message was very urgent and what they received in Nepal was very minimal due to the horrible connection, but if he was needed, he would return to the fight. Overwatch was made to protect the world and he would not stand by to see it destroyed if he could do something. Knowing Zenyatta was happy to assist made him know his decision was the correct one to make.

The quiet knock at the door tore him from his thoughts, making him look up and reach over to grab the components of his mask. He stood, placing the items back over his face and moved to answer the door. Upon seeing the face behind the door, he felt himself light up, a warm smile that only he knew of spreading across his face.

"Angela! I did not know you had already arrived."

The woman, who had been momentarily distracted by the tablet in her arm, looked up with a soft, warm smile.

"Oh, I've been here for a couple of days now, Genji. I wanted to arrive early to assess all of our newer agents' medical records, after all," she allowed a small laugh to escape her, then noticed the omnic meditating inside of the room. She took a couple of steps back, motioning for Genji to follow so they would not disturb Zenyatta. He followed, politely closing the door behind himself. "So that is the famous Zenyatta you always talk about in your letters is it? I'm glad he was able to come along, looks like I will no longer be the only medic during our fights."

She hummed as she took a moment to tap away on the pad in her arms, bringing up Zenyatta's file.

"A member of the Shembali, a wandering monk who can show people harmony and discord. He sounds like an amazing man. I'm so pleased to know you found someone like him after Overwatch was disbanded. I have to admit, I was worried for you... I understand that Blackwatch did not have the best... influences," Angela found herself frowning a little bit as Genji merely gave a gentle nod.

"He helped me become whole, again. Master showed me my rage would be my ultimate downfall and that I would never find peace with the way Blackwatch used me," he mused while Angela took a couple more steps back, motioning for Genji to follow her. "Are you going to give my body a check-up? It has been a number of years since you examined your work."

"Well, I need to. I have made advancements that I want to make sure will work for you, after all. I noticed that Mr. dos Santos put Winston right to sleep on my way down. Surprising, considering he was very intent on monitoring the watchpoints every corner ever since I arrived. I tried to get him to sleep but to no avail," she gave a gentle sigh as they headed up the stairs, "he seems to have much more at his disposal than myself."

"It is impressive. Here I thought Ana was the only one capable of getting anyone unruly straight into bed. It was the mother's touch she had."

"If by _'mother's touch'_ you mean a sleeping dart and a steady hand, then yes."

The both of them found themselves laughing amongst each other as they reminisce on the past. The days of their youth felt so far, but the memories were so vivid. The days when everything was indefinite and everything made sense, everything was coherent to the core.

Or so they wished to believe.

Once they reached the room in which the scientist in question was asleep in, Angela stopped, waving to Lucio who had looked over at them from beyond the monitors.

"Mr. dos Santos, I--"

"Lucio's fine."

"Yes. _Lucio_ , I'd like to see you as well if you don't mind following Genji and myself."

"Oh. Oh sure--"

"And if you would not mind, bring your skates and sonic amplifier. I'd like to take a look at them," Angela interrupted with a sweet smile on her face. Lucio just gave a hesitant nod and hopped up from the tire to grab what was requested. He pulled out his pack that was giving off the same music as his weapon, setting it down beside Winston to keep him asleep.

He hefted the skates over his shoulders, giving a small wheeze at the weight. They were so much easier to transport when he was wearing them. They felt so weightless on his legs. But he carried them over to Ms. Ziegler nonetheless and followed them up the stairs with his equipment in his hands.

"Here. If you will allow me," Genji spoke up, reaching out to take the heavy skates from Lucio's arm who gave the ninja a surprised look when he effortlessly lifted them over his shoulders. Ah, he was strong. Really strong. Now he felt a little self-conscious, the dark skin of his cheeks heating up lightly. Man, this guy... It's almost like he was showing off. It didn't really frustrate him per se... but it definitely rustled him in a way that he... well, he wasn't sure what it made him feel.

For now, he just pouted a little bit (hopefully it went unnoticed) and continued up the stairs after Genji and Ms. Ziegler.

They reached the medical bay of the watchpoint in very little time, Ms. Ziegler swiping a card over a reader to allow the three of them inside. Lucio was a little bit surprised to see card readers still functioning here, especially considering how Overwatch was shut down in such a nasty way. But he stepped inside when instructed to anyway.

The room had a completely different aura from the one he'd been sitting in for the past hour; stark white walls, bright lighting overhead, the smell of sterilizers lacing the air, monitors and machines placed neatly throughout the room... It seemed Ms. Ziegler went through a lot to get this particular area in top shape. He wondered how long she'd been here and, well, when she got here. The first time he himself had seen her was when she came down the stairs and they traded hello’s, names, and small details about themselves. He had absolutely heard about her before, anyway... he remembered her coming to Rio at one point to help those who were injured but she was unable to stay for long.

She looked just like an angel when he watched her patch up the civilians, like she had some kind of magic to her that mended their wounds straight away. Kind of like what his music does. She was definitely one of his inspirations to start helping his people rip themselves from the Vishkar's clutches.

"Genji, come with me," Angela hummed, leading Genji, who had placed Lucio's gear down on a medical table, behind a large white curtain where she had him seat himself. "I'm going to need to remove your headgear. Are you okay with that?"

"Of course, Angela."

Headgear, huh? So it was just armor. While Lucio couldn't see what was going on, he could catch the silhouette of Ms. Ziegler removing the mask from Genji's face and head, her hands tracing over his body, seeming to examine him. He was curious, he wanted to see what was going on... but he knew prying would be extremely rude of him. He could hear her giving small hums and clicking her tongue every now and then while Genji did his best to stay still for her.

"I should be able to give you the enhancements... however you may be out of commission for a couple of days afterwards. Your body will need the time to recover... they won't change anything cosmetically, only make living life easier for you. Have you had any complications since your last check-up?"

"I understand and no, I have not."

"I'm happy to see the cold hasn't damaged anything, but the enhancements should prevent that even further and may improve your breathing. I am working my hardest to help you live a life without the assistance of that mask... every advancement counts, right?" She said with a happy tone in her voice, but anyone could feel the tremor of worry within it.

"Do not worry, Angela. There is no rush. So long as I am living, you have given me the world as far as I am concerned."

"Aww...," Lucio couldn't help but give a small noise, causing Ms. Ziegler to peak out from behind the curtains at him with a bemused but stern look in her eyes.

"Don't get any ideas, Lucio. I am merely his doctor."

"Hey, I didn't say anything," he replied, hands up in the air defensively but the cheeky grin on his face never leaving. He watched her roll her eyes and go back behind the sheet.

"So," she started as she began putting Genji's headgear back on, "I want to start the procedure sometime next week. I should have all the tools by then and we shouldn't be starting any missions for another month. I want you to be able to become accustomed to the changes before we all get into anything extensive."

"I understand, thank you."

Moments later, the two appeared from behind the curtain and Lucio straightened up as Angela's attention snapped to him.

"Lucio, do you mind showing me your skates and sonic amplifier?"

"Of course! I-I mean, yeah, definitely."

Lucio coughed, setting his weapon on the table beside his skates as Ms. Ziegler stepped over to examine them with eager eyes.

"So you are able to create music that mends wounds and helps those around you move faster and amplify it through not only your weapon but the backpack you use and the small speakers in your skates? I am honestly impressed beyond words," Angela gushed as she picked up the weapon, turning it around in her hands before opening the battery slot and frowning a little bit, "the batteries are technically your ammunition... but these are not at all efficient for what we will be going into."

"What do you mean? I usually used it to keep Vishkar goons off my back when they were still in Rio," Lucio's brow furrowed a little bit as he leaned against the table. Angela shook her head while she pulled out the battery.

"You'll need more power for what we are going to be up against, I assure you... unfortunately what I have in my staff cannot be converted to fit your amplifier," she hummed quietly as she looked over the battery a little bit more, "I have a solution, but it will take time to develop. It will still allow the same consistent shots, but will help the battery keep charge for an extended period of time. You'll be able to stay in the fight for longer, is what I am saying."

"Wait, you can do that? That's awesome!"

"With Winston's help, it should not take incredibly long and we will be able to have a much larger supply for you. They'll be applicable to your skates and pack as well. The longer you are able to stay with us in missions, the better," she paused once more, reloading Lucio's sonic amplifier with the battery and setting it down to move on, "speaking of skates...."

"Why skates?"

Genji finally spoke up, grabbing both Angela's and Lucio's attention. Lucio gave a small chuckle, rubbing at the back of his head.

"Well uh... back in Rio, I used to play street hockey a lot with the other kids before curfews were enforced and I had a pair of skates that I just loved. I used them a lot to fight against Vishkar but the night I stole tech from them, they managed to get them off of me so I had to run for it. Using their tech, I managed to make these...," Lucio paused, reaching up to a switch on the pants, the skates themselves lighting up, "testin' them out, they gave me a lot more speed and with some practice I could stick to walls pretty easily with them.

So stealing their tech not only gave me the weapon I have now, but the skates I used to escape them even more efficiently... of course, I went back in there and got my old skates back but I gave 'em to one of my younger fans before I left Rio."

The cyborg could only give a confused hum while Angela allowed a short sigh to escape her.

“Genji, I believe this was during a time when you only did what others told you rather than looking into the world itself on your own,” Angela started, fingers continuing to glide over the intricacies of the skates before her. “You see, an organization that is in affiliation with Talon known as the Vishkar Corporation sought to expand their grasp on the world and made efforts to move into Brazil, Rio to be specific. They claimed to the natives that they were there to help improve their lives… it so happens that the primary intention was to enslave the people for free labor. Anyone who rebelled was killed.”

Genji was quiet for a few minutes, a look of disbelief on his scarred features hidden behind his headgear. “Why was Overwatch not instructed to assist?”

“It was too dangerous for us at the time, to attempt to go head to head with associates of Talon, especially in a place with so many civilians.” She paused, looking up at Genji. “That is what Gerard and Jack would tell us.”

“Kind of wish you guys had shown up… instead’a makin’ us deal with it all.”

Ms. Ziegler opened her mouth to speak but only shut it, again. She had a pained look on her face, one that pulled at Lucio’s heartstrings a little bit. He definitely didn’t mean to make her feel bad, not in the slightest! He just wished… something could have been done sooner.

“Not that it’s your fault… I’m just saying, it would have made things easier on us. Would have seen a lot less death maybe. Not trying to blame anyone, really,” he attempted to calm her down, a strained smile making its way onto his face.

“I came as often as I could.” She sighed, pushing her fingers through her blond locks and pulling out her hair tie to retie the loosened ponytail, “I could only save so many people during that time. I am sorry I was unable to be of more help.”

“It… It’s not your fault, really. Trust me… I’m appreciative of what you could do for us.”

After that, there was a long-drawn out silence that made Lucio’s throat go dry. Had he been too aggressive? The air felt thick in a way that he might suffocate at any moment just naturally breathing. He didn’t mean to start any ill will between himself and the doctor. The topic was just something he couldn’t help but have a lot of passion about; after all, he lived through it and guided his people out of it.

He really screwed up in the stupidest way, didn’t he?

“Lucio.”

The kindhearted tone ripped him away from his bothersome thoughts, forcing him to look up at Ms. Ziegler who had a soft smile on her face.

“I have another thing I would like to inspect.” She paused, glancing down at the DJ’s legs. “Might I see your prosthetic?”

Lucio’s mouth opened to ask her how she knew about that but closed it again and merely nodded his head. She had all of his medical information at the touch of a fingertip so it was really no surprise that she knew about it. Her smile only widened as she offered him a seat where he was able to roll up the clothing over his left leg while pushing off his shoe with his other foot. Angela knelt down, clearly eager to take a look at the faux limb.

Genji, most certainly curious after learning the other had his own prosthetics, found himself peeking from behind his visor. He wanted to avoid looking… perverse or strange in front of the new agent, after all.

“An Ogundimu prosthetic, am I correct? They are the best on the market… but yours is an older model, I see,” Angela hummed as she slid her fingers over the roughness of the outdated model, seeing many areas where it had taken its own beating over the years Lucio had it.

“Yeah. I just wanted to find something… that worked, y’know? Just so I could walk properly again after… well, you probably already know.”

The cyborg's interest was heightened, his full attention obviously on Lucio at this point. Wanted to walk again, huh? He could understand that… it’s why he went through so many agonizing years of experimenting to get the body he has now; just so he could walk again without feeling like his body would fall apart. To merely have legs that he could stand on without assistance.

What happened to Lucio, though? Who did this to him? He was fully aware that this Vishkar considered him an enemy… so were they the ones to take his limb? The thought… it brought back many painful memories to when his brother…

No. Let’s not think about that right now.

Genji cleared his mind as he watched Angela remove the prosthetic from Lucio’s knee, Lucio himself not seeming at all bothered by the examination itself.

“You know, I can order you an upgrade or make one myself. It seems like it is time for a newer model,” Angela said, frowning a little bit as she looked at all the wear and tear around the ankle and soles of the feet. How long has Lucio owned this for? It’s practically ancient.

“I appreciate the offer, but… no, sorry.” Lucio started, leaning forward a little bit in his seat, “that limb… I don’t think I can see myself parting with it any time soon. It’s… basically become a part of me. Like my actual leg was.”

The doctors frown only seemed to become more intense at that statement before she allowed a small sigh. She didn’t want to force him to change if he wasn’t comfortable with it. It wasn’t her place. It had to be Lucio’s decision if he wanted to get a new prosthetic or not, anyway. She merely re-secured the limb back to Lucio’s knee and left it at that.

“If you ever feel the need for an upgrade, do not be afraid to come to me. I am always happy to assist my patients.”

“Thanks, Doc. I’ll keep that in mind,” Lucio gave out a small chuckle and rolled his pant leg back down and pulled his shoe back on.

An upgrade, huh? It’s… it’s not really something on his list. He wasn’t comfortable with the thought in the slightest. He’d become too attached. This was something the people in his favela gifted to him after they drove the Vishkar out in which the incident occurred. It was a day he’d never forget… the people he saved, his people… this was his reminder that he did something great for them all. All of them, including himself, are stronger because of the experience.

While it should have never happened, he’s almost happy it did. He created a bond in the favela, one that resounded throughout Rio, gave people the courage to fight back against the Vishkar. This prosthetic plants him firmly in his spot as a freedom fighter. There’s no way he’d ever trade it for anything else. He had little reason to.

Lucio moved to stand up, fidgeting awkwardly as he did so before finally forcing his gaze back up to Ms. Ziegler and Genji. Angela had already gone back to tapping through the holopad in her arms while Genji was giving Lucio an almost curious look, one that he couldn’t help but tense up at. Had he said something wrong, again? God, he hoped not.

“Somethin’ wrong, my man?” The DJ was the first to break the silence, seeming to snap Genji out of his stupor.

“You said you could stick to walls with your skates. How?”

“Oh. The tech in my skates is kind of the same as what the Vishkar used for their security system. Where the blades are when the armor is powered on are able to help me not only glide around with ease, but help me climb onto walls. It isn’t always sturdy or safe, but it helps me get around in sticky situations,” a smile made its way over his face. It took him a few weeks with help of those in the favela to get it to work just right. After that, getting Vishkar out of Brazil was simple.

“Perhaps you could come climbing with me sometime, Lucio. There are various cliffs around the watchpoint and I do find it to be a very soothing experience once a nice spot is found,” Genji paused for a moment, “the company would be welcome.”

“You almost sound like you’re tryin’ to ask me out on a date with how you seem to wanna spend time with me,” Lucio gave a snide grin, “with your girlfriend standin’ right here, too.”

“I am not his girlfriend, only his doctor.”

“Whatever you say, Doc.”

Angela just shot him a half-hearted glare at Lucio, who only shrugged.

“Angela is right, Lucio. There has never been anything romantic between myself and her. She merely gave me a second chance at life and I am ever in her debt for the opportunity.” Genji mused. There was a hint of warmth in his voice, one that Lucio himself couldn’t help but allow a soft smile to spread across his face at.

“You know what, Genji… I’d love to join you on one of your climbs sometime. Sounds like it’d be a blast.”

The cyborgs face lit up from behind his mask. A bonding experience after such a long time… it honestly sent a sensation of excitement throughout his body. The last time he’d made a friend was… well, his master. But he considered Zenyatta more of a teacher than a friend. Nevertheless, he was happy to know he’d be able to learn about someone new.

While Genji was fully aware that Lucio Correia dos Santos was a famous international DJ (that was mainly from the files he’d glanced over during his trip from Nepal to the watchpoint), he knew extremely little about him as a person. He didn’t even know he was a freedom fighter, one to save his home from those associated with Talon. Lucio must have countless stories of the events in his home… and he would absolutely admit that he was interested in learning more about what happened there. Blackwatch kept many things from him… it was about time he knew what went on in the world while he was blind to it.

“You are dismissed, boys. I need to start gathering the tools I need for Genji’s enhancements… could you try waking Winston in a couple of hours? I’d like to start talking with him about your ammunition upgrades, Lucio.” Angela spoke up now, a kind smile on her face as she looked away from her tablet and up at the two guests in her domain.

“You got it, Ms. Ziegler.” Lucio said with pep in his voice as he began gathering up his gear. Genji moved to assist him without hesitation, to which Lucio could only give a thankful smile at him. The two of them began to exit the room before Angela spoke up, again.

“Oh, and Lucio…,” Lucio stopped at the door, looking back at her. “Please, call me _Angela._ ”

He paused for a moment, the request taking a few moments to register in his head before it finally clicked. The DJ couldn’t help but give a wide grin to her, giving her a confident nod and a thumbs up before exiting the room. Something in his chest leapt and cheered, as though his heart were soaring. It’d be so long since he’d gotten to be on genuinely friendly terms with new people that it sent a rush of excitement to be accepted by the renowned doctor. Any worries he was having about joining Overwatch seemed to dissipate more and more into thin air the longer he was here.

This decision was turning out to be full of surprises and he had to admit, he loved every second of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Hours had passed since his interaction with the renowned doctor; Angela had stayed in her office while Genji retired to his room, announcing before disappearing that he showed interest in meditating with Zenyatta before fully retiring for the night. While Lucio felt a little down about how short the interactions between himself and his new teammates were, it wasn’t enough to stop his mind from buzzing with questions and inquiries he had for all of them.

What could they do? What were their skill sets? How did they fight, were they close range or long range? What motivated them to come just from Winston’s call?

Barraging them with questions when they were all possibly just as stressed as he was when he first arrived or even absolutely exhausted was definitely not his place, as much as his brain begged him to go and learn what he could about all of them. Lucio slouched in the tire that he had gone back to after putting his items back in their cases, doing his best to avoid disturbing Winston before his nap was over. Though, sitting here with what seemed like absolutely nothing going on was enough to drive him crazy.

He was so used to being active, whether it be tours, autograph signings, public appearances of any sort, or even just gliding around in new territories and taking in the brand new scenery around him. There was so much he could think of to do, but the idea of something happening - good or bad - kept him from straying too far from his current post.

That and… well…

Lucio turned his gaze from the monitors finally, blinking a couple times to allow his eyes to adjust to the relatively dark room surrounding himself and the sleeping scientist not too far away from himself. He kept Winston at bay for at least two or three hours now, waking him up would be a good idea but at the same time, the big guy deserved a full eight hours - that is, if gorillas needed eight hours or even more than that.

Angela had yet to come out to ask him to turn off the music, so it didn’t seem like too much of an issue in retrospect, but Lucio couldn’t help but find him itching for someone to talk to or something to do. Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he made up his mind in mere seconds and pushed himself up from off the tire while making extra sure he didn’t trip over any loose wires like last time.

Without anyone around to save him from some perfectly timed clumsiness, he wouldn’t know how to react.

He seated himself on the cool, concrete floor hands reaching for the glove that controlled his music when the sound of the door not too far from himself hissed and slowly opened up, the mechanics that pushed and pulled it echoing throughout the room causing his attention to quickly snap to it. Deep orange afternoon light poured into the room, silhouetting a thin, short figure. Lucio’s eyes couldn’t seem to adjust in time before Athena spoke, welcoming the newcomer to the watchpoint.

_“Welcome, Hana Song.”_

Lucio’s ears immediately perked upon hearing the name of the new arrival, squinting a little bit to try and make out if it really was who Athena claimed it was. It was so hard to tell with the way the light was framing her - that is, until she spoke up.

“I don’t know who’s greeting me, but thanks so much!” The cheerful yet surprisingly laid back voice caught his ears, “you can just call me Hana or D.va if you want to, though. Either works just fine for me.”

_“Of course, Hana.”_

Lucio scrambled to his feet, nearly kicking one of the more delicate parts of his equipment in the process as he watched her stroll inside, clearly distracted with her eyes locked to the screen of her phone for a moment. Hana finally looked up, her free hand moving to adjust the cap that sat neatly on top of her head before she took a sharp gasp, whipping the item from her head instantly as an overly excited squeal escaped her.

“OH-EM-GEE! You’re Lucio, like, _the_ Lucio! I listen to your music almost nonstop, especially on stream, I love all of your albums so much! I can’t believe I’m meeting you here, like it’s really, really you! Can I get a photo or even an autograph? Wait, that’s silly, if you’re here then that means we’re going to be spending so much time together - oh, oh! Are we going to be working together?! Aah! This is so exciting!”

As Hana excitedly went on about her enthusiasm over the idea of working with him, Lucio was simply starstruck all on his own; his mind pulled a complete blank, words were the last thing coming to him, he couldn’t even believe he was seeing none other than D.va right in front of him! She was just as much of an idol to him as he was to her, possibly even more! He rarely missed a stream of hers and even if he did, he found himself excitedly ready to watch the VOD whenever possible. Even stream highlights didn’t do her content justice.

Of course, he more than happily donated to her streams whenever he wanted to (which was nearly every stream of course) and was at this point her top donor by far, leagues ahead of any other viewer of the stream - but that didn’t mean she knew it was him. His agent always advised against using his real name when it came to social media outlets like streaming sites. Others were fine, but it could be considered ‘scandalous’ or something like that if he were caught donating nightly to the 19 year old Korean pro.

But there she was, still going off about how excited she was to meet him face to face.

How was he even meant to react to that?!

_“Lucio has been quite excited to meet you as well, Hana,”_ Athena suddenly interrupted her, causing her to look up and around for the exact source of the voice but to no avail, _“I mentioned to him soon after he arrived that you would be working with us.”_

Lucio couldn’t help but tense up, his excitement from earlier being revealed into the open from the AI. He couldn’t help but feel slightly betrayed that he’d been outed so easily without even a second of hesitation. But Hana quickly looked back to him, her smile only growing even wider before she quickly set her bags down on the floor.

“That’s probably because he watches my streams more than anyone else and is my top donator. Right, Lucio?”

“Whoa whoa, how did you know that?!” Lucio’s voice finally cracked out, hands slapping over his mouth in embarrassment, “that account ain’t even linked back to me!”

“Ahaha! Seriously? It was a joke, but I guess my suspicions were right, even though in the beginning they were more like wishful thinking but now I have confirmation - you’re NeonFrog26!”

Lucio felt his face heat up immediately as she revealed his username, the hands already placed over his mouth quickly moving over his face. He felt himself slowly melting from the heat that rose across the back of his neck and cheeks, his heart was absolutely racing to the point where it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, run to the nearest internet source, and delete his account right then and there!

“Eh… ahaha…,” Lucio coughed a couple of times before he finally moved his hands, rubbing the back of his neck with them as he avoided looking Hana in the eyes, “... that’s uh… that’s me, ya caught me!”

“Come on, Lucio! You have nothing to be embarrassed about, do you know how many of your concerts I’ve gone to in Busan dressed up in some ridiculous disguise just so nobody would recognize me or how many times I jam out in my PJ’s while listening to your music? Just knowing that you’re a fan of mine right back is probably the single most flattering thing in the world and all I do is play Starcraft!”

“Are you kiddin’ me? You’re the single most entertaining Starcraft player I’ve ever seen, everything to try and still end up winnin’ blows my mind! I’ve learned so much about the game just from watchin’ you play and I’m still nowhere near as good as you - in fact, I’ll probably never be as talented as you, girl!”

This time it was Hana’s turn to freeze, her face heating up a bright ruby red at the compliment before she suddenly reached up to slap her face, a small, high pitched squeal parting her lips. It seemed like he’d turned the tables on her and turned her into the speechless one! Though, the interaction didn’t last for incredibly long as a low groan caught their attention, the sound of the gorilla who’d previously been sound asleep behind the musician slowly rolling over onto his back before sitting up.

A long, broad yawn pulled through Winston as he stretched his arms high above his head then settled back down. He grumbled quietly, a drowsy smile making its way onto his face, “oh um… sorry about that. Athena, why didn’t you tell me Ms Song had arrived...?”

_“You needed your rest, Winston. Lucio covered the greeting for you, don’t worry. Nobody else has arrived, you have nothing to worry about.”_

“Heeey, there’s the sleepyhead. Hope my little treatment worked out well enough for ya, big guy,” Lucio chuckled idly to himself as he spun around on his heel to face the mammal, reaching down to power off his arsenal with a quick press of a few buttons, “you were completely knocked out for a good while there, so I guess that’s something I can say I’ve done in my lifetime; knock out a guy three times my size without even touchin’ him.”

The DJ let out a laugh, squatting down in front of Winston who lazily rubbed the sleepies from his eyes, yawning once more. It was gratifying to know he could help him out in even the smallest way, he couldn’t even begin to think of how stressful all of this was for him, especially knowing what he’d been previously debriefed on. Being directly targeted one of Talon's most deadly agents, nearly losing such important files and assets thus endangering so many lives… Lucio himself would have never known how to handle it.

Though that was probably why Winston was well regarded by the other two ex-Overwatch agents he previously met. Smart and quick to act with expert decision making skills, not to mention without a doubt extremely strong in his own right; he had to guess that was part of the perks of being a hyper-intelligent gorilla. Lucio was pulled from his train of thought when he heard the rustling of Hana’s bomber jacket directly beside him, causing him to snap his attention to her.

“So you’re Winston, the one who called for help, right? I’m happy to be aboard, I just hope you’ve got good internet here,” she winked, “nobody knows I’m here besides my team back home, but I still have a duty as a streamer to keep my audience entertained whenever I can! Oh and… is there anywhere I can store my mech?”

Hana offered a sheepish smile, pressing her fingers together. Lucio could only assume that’s how she arrived here, though it must’ve been a struggle to fly in it to here all the way from Korea. How long would that even take? Hours to days, right?

“Oh uh… of course! To both of those, there’s a garage for personnel vehicles, I can show you where it is--”

“Naaah, it’s fine. Just tell me the directions and I’ll get my baby in there E-Z!”

Hana pushed herself up so that she was standing properly now, the confident smile on her face telling the both of them just enough to not be worried about her not being able to handle herself. Winston hesitated for a moment, unsure if it were okay to just let her wander the perimeter on her own quite yet before ultimately resolving that it would be better for new agents to learn the lay of the land on their own rather than having their hands held at every waking second.

While Lucio gathered his equipment to put it back in its proper storage, Winston verbally mapped out the area to Hana who intently listened, nodding every now and then. She seemed very excited at the idea of being able to make the whole watchpoint her brand new stomping ground, the DJ couldn’t help but take note that she didn’t at all seem phased by the twists and turns that it took to get to where she was trying to go. Watching her streams on the regular, he knew how intelligent she was despite her overly cute presence and style. After all, not only was she the number one starcraft player in the world, but she was the head of a highly elite mecha unit squad tasked with protecting her home from rogue omnics.

Lucio honestly couldn’t help it but find her to be so incredibly cool, it just made him want to ask for her autograph even more!

Once Winston finished giving her the directions, even going so far as to explain specific landmarks in detail, Hana thanked him for the help before she disappeared through the door once more to go and store her mech away until it was needed. Lucio hummed quietly to himself as he finally placed the last item of his arsenal away before a spark of realization hit him.

“Hey, Winston,” he piped up, a curiosity lacing his tone, “where exactly am I crashin’?”

The gorilla in question had been seating himself back in his tire when he was addressed, giving a quick ‘oh!’ in response before he reached over his desk, shifting a few empty peanut butter jars out of the way in the process before he snatched up a keycard with a neon green sticky note on it that read ‘Lucio.’ The musician couldn’t help but snicker a little bit at the mild disorganization of the other but hid it away nonetheless. The card was held out to him and Lucio wasted no time taking it.

“Your room number should be on the keycard there, you saw where Genji and Zenyatta went earlier, right? Just down that way… I’m pretty sure you’re just a couple rooms down from theirs,” Winston offered a pleasant smile, one that Lucio could only happily return, “I know I said it before, it’s not much but hopefully things will improve here over time. I’ve only been here a few weeks myself, it’s hard to try and get everything in perfect shape all on my own, I don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable however this watchpoint - while it’s not one of the bigger ones - is still difficult to upkeep without any help and-”

“Winston.” Lucio interrupted as he hoisted his bag up onto his shoulder, the smile on his face never fading, “you don’t gotta worry so much. I’m here to help, not live in the lap of luxury or anythin’. You act like I haven’t had to live in poverty at one point in my life or anything! I can make do, you got nothin’ to worry about.”

Winston was quiet for a moment, clearly unsure of what to respond with before he simply offered the Brazilian a nod and turned his attention back to the monitors, worries seemingly put to rest for the time being. Lucio’s smile grew a little bit before he grabbed the rest of his belongings and started to head up the stairs he noticed Genji and Zenyatta travel up earlier. He was nearly at the top before another realization struck him and he practically hopped down down the staircase.

“Oh yeah! Angela wants to see you about some stuff, don’t keep her waitin’!”

With that, Lucio hurried himself up the stairs, hearing Winston scramble to get up from his seat and head to Angela’s office. He couldn’t help but find it a little amusing that Winston was so eager to help out, his hands were so full of everything and it was beyond him how he could seemingly insist on doing everything all by himself. He couldn’t sit by and let that stand, though. Lucio was determined to be as much help in and out of whatever they’d be doing here, that included giving Winston an extra pair of hands when it seemed like he was overworking himself (which, in all fairness, would more than likely be pretty often).

As he wandered down the hallway, he turned the key over in his hands to spot the room number labelled on it, humming quietly to himself as his eyes scanned over each glowing, holographic plaque that beamed over each doorway as he passed them. He couldn’t help but think it would have been much more convenient to just paint the numbers on the walls or something, but this technological age couldn’t be argued with. Finally though, he made it to his room, which wasn’t an entirely long journey, but he was sure to forget the exact number and distance he would need to go if he didn’t have the card on him at all times.

Swiping the key over the reader, the door slid open with a gentle hiss, the light clicking on on its own as well as a beam of artificial daylight flooding into the relatively large room. Lucio hesitated for a moment, staring up at the Overwatch symbol on the otherwise barren door, before he placed the card in his mouth while adjusting his grip on his luggage, slowly shuffling inside and peering around from corner to corner.

A bed, a desk, a few lights here and there, a communicator, a couple doors that he could only suspect led to either storage or a bathroom - nothing to write home about but it was definitely somewhere to live for the next few… months? Years? He honestly had no idea how long this would be his residence for, not that he was in one place for very long. Honestly, it could be a nice change of pace for him, a vacation while having a threat over his own life almost constantly just because he’s doing something technically illegal.

Ah, just like the old days.

A small, almost weak smile graced his lips as he stepped further into the room, gaze now situating itself to the plain grey carpeted floor. He placed his bags down on the floor, not bothering to unpack them quite yet and headed over to the bed where he proceeded to flop down on the surprisingly comfortable mattress. He let out a sigh as his head rested on the pillow, blinking slowly once, then twice, then a third time. Lucio’s eyelids became heavy, an abrupt fatigue overtaking him all at once. He wasn’t sure what time it was, how long his travel from Brazil to the watch point had been, or even if he himself had a proper sleep ever since he found the message asking for his help. So many questions had run through his mind in that solid instant, he barely had time to think about the decision before he made up his mind to do whatever he could to offer some help.

Whether skipping thinking over it was the right decision or not, only time would tell. He didn’t have any regrets, in fact he had said this multiple times that his interest was becoming increasingly piqued with each new face or name that crossed his path. Winston, Athena, Angela, Genji, Zenyatta, Hana… they had high hopes for their missions to come, each and every one of them, he could feel it just by the air of confidence that surrounded them. They all believe without a shadow of a doubt that they could create a better world, just like what Overwatch used to do before it was forced to disband.

But did Lucio himself believe that they could do it?

It was a lot for his weary brain to think about, the thoughts rushing and running throughout his mind slowly settling and becoming foggy as his eyelids slipped shut. Lucio’s body relaxed into the mattress beneath him as a gentle sigh parted his lips; it didn’t take long for him to fall into a serene slumber, the lights in the room dimming almost immediately after detecting he’d fallen asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

“Winston, are you sure you can find the materials? This watchpoint has been defunct for years and wasn’t entirely the most supplied one--”

“Angela, you’re worrying too much,” Winston interjected, looking over the plans the doctor had given him while taking note of the list of supplies she required; she was attempting to make a modified version of her Caduceus staffs’ power source for Lucio’s equipment. The workarounds she came up with were impressive, however he did spot some faults here and there that called for more than what they would actually need for the project, “I could get a prototype made in a few hours with just scrap material lying around, we would need to test it of course… if only Lucio had another sonic amplifier we could test with…”

“It appeared as though he only arrived with what he could carry on his own,” Angela sighed, seating herself in the worn down desk chair, the old pleather cracking slightly beneath her weight, “his weapon is sturdy for something he appears to have made on his own, I’m sure it could handle _some_ experimentation.”

**Some** being the keyword there. She only had the device in her hands for a few moments before she felt as though she were taking too many liberties with a strangers personal possession, but at the very least it was enough to show her what held it together and the materials it was made of. If Lucio was secure enough to bring it with him here, even despite knowing little to nothing of what they all might be getting themselves into, then all Angela could do was trust his judgement and abilities.

After all, it wasn’t as if she had much at her disposal herself that allowed her to partake in combat. She was a pacifist, only fighting when her life or the lives of her comrades were threatened. It was comforting to know that, even despite Ana being gone, she would have another healer there to look out for everyone's safety in close quarters. Angela leaned back slightly in the chair, lost in thought as her fingers idly fidgeted over her midsection.

Winston seemed to take notice of her sudden change in demeanor, opting to set the schematics down on the desk in front of her before clearing his throat, catching her attention.

“Angela, you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to--”

“No!”

She placed a hand over her mouth at her abrupt outburst, one that left the gorilla relatively unphased.

“I mean…,” she placed her hands down on the desk, “... it’s just that… Overwatch was shut down for a reason. We’re bringing people who have their own lives, ones that have very limited knowledge of what truly happened and why Overwatch was disbanded.”

Winston listened carefully, seating himself on the floor of the medical bay, motioning for her to continue. Angela seemed hesitant, her mouth falling agape for a second before she shook her head a little bit.

“Is it really okay for us to be bringing new people into our mess? This is not their issue, it never involved them and I don’t believe I would be able to have the heart to watch more lives be taken because of-”

“It’s not your fault, Angela. Nobody lost their lives because of _you_ ,” he stated firmly, making sure his words were as clear as possible to her. Angela simply stared back at the scientist, a sense of insecurity finding its way into her eyes, “we’re--... _they’re_ here because they understand the world is at risk, just like you.”

Angela quickly turned her attention to the desk in front of herself, removing her glasses to hold them securely in her hands as she licked and pursed her lips. She wasn’t entirely sure what to say to that; she knew he was right in every sense of the word and he had zero reason to think otherwise. They both knew that everyone joining them, new and old, had a common cause that they wanted to fight for.

They all had something they wanted to protect.

She closed her eyes for a moment, regaining her center and air of confidence before she slipped her glasses back on, turning her gaze back up to Winston with a half-hearted smile.

“You’re right… thank you, Winston,” she paused for a moment as she straightened her posture in the chair, “it’s getting late, have we had any more arrivals in the evening?”

“I’m not quite sure… Athena?”

_”As a matter of fact, we have three agents coming through the door right now. I’m sure you will be elated to see them.”_

“Oh?” Winston seemed to perk up, a slight smile spreading across his face. Deciding on the fly it would be best to greet them, he quickly took the schematics before leaving the room, “I’ll be back with the prototype soon, Angela! If you need anything, just ask Athena to call for me!”

“Wait--”

Ah, it was too late, he was already gone, the door sliding smoothly shut behind him… and here she was going to ask him to direct the new arrivals to her. She would come out later and gather them up when she could.

Winston made his way almost excitedly down the stairs, the sound of his feet padding heavily against the steps beneath him ricocheting off the walls of the facility, letting anyone and everyone that was listening know he was on his way downstairs. As he reached the bottom floor, he barely had time to see who it was before a pair of large arms wrapped around his shoulders and another pair of not-so-large arms around his midsection.

“Winston, my old friend! It has been quite sometime since I last heard from you, I was beginning to think you had disappeared for good! Haha!” The gruff, boisterous voice that hit Winston’s ears told him well enough that it was none other than Reinhardt Wilhelm practically holding him in a headlock right now, “you should have called me as soon as something happened, I would have been here much sooner!”

“He’s right, big guy - I’ve been worried sick about you ever since I got your message! I still can’t believe we’re getting everyone back together, you have no clue how wicked it is to see Reinhardt in the flesh after so many years!” A thrilled, accented voice piped up and it was without a doubt none other than Lena who had claimed his midsection for the sole purpose of hugging, “amazing choice in hideout though, love! I can’t even remember the last time we were here, so much so that I couldn’t find the entrance until I ran into Reinhardt, hahaha!”

“Ooh, yes! I found Lena wandering around like a lost child not too far from the entrance of the watchpoint! Lucky we ran into her, otherwise she might’ve been lost forever!”

As Reinhardt joked, Winston could barely even find any words let alone get one in before one thing he said caught his attention. Athena had mentioned that three agents had arrived, but she never specified who it was - and considering there wasn’t a very, very short man shoving his way in to hug his leg… who was it?

“ _’We?’_ ” Winston finally inquired as the two released him from their overexcited grasps, “who… who did you bring, Reinhardt?”

“Well, eh heh… she wouldn’t take no for an answer you see--”

“Brigitte Lindholm!” The unfamiliar voice caught Winston’s attention while Reinhardt nervously stepped off to the side to reveal a relatively young, fit girl, her hands on her hips and a proud smile spread across her freckle kissed face, “it’s nice to meet you, I hope you’re okay with one more on board - I have no idea how many you already have but… I want to help!”

Lindholm… one of Torbjorns children? Certainly one of the youngest, from the looks of it. If Winston recalled correctly, one of his children began training under Reinhardt as his squire of sorts in case of minor threats. He had to wonder if she had the same mechanics prowess as her father. That would have to be a question for later though, as he was pulled out of his thoughts by the crusader placing his hand on his shoulder.

“Winston, you _must_ tell her it’s too dangerous for her to be joining us… she refused to allow me to come here alone and I cannot escort her back in a timely manner, she would have to stay here but she cannot be allowed to fight,” Reinhardt pleaded, the girl behind him giving a sour look, “her father would have my kneecaps if he knew she were here!”

“Papa knows I can take care of myself, Reinhardt! If I’ve bested you more than once, I can certainly best whatever we might face - plus, I already brought all my equipment,” Brigitte countered the large man, stepping forward a couple steps, “we already had this argument on the way here, I’m staying _and_ helping in any way I can.”

Winston stayed silent, knowing it wasn’t his place to interject in the argument between the crusader and shieldmaiden; however, he knew it would get out of hand if someone didn’t come between them and stop this silly bickering… he just wasn’t sure how to stop it. He opened his mouth to speak but the words couldn’t seem to come to him and he looked down to Lena for some sort of help. She offered a slightly confused look, wondering to herself why she was suddenly brought into this.

Well, they were a team, she couldn’t let her team fight!

“Reinhardt, maybe you should let her help us!” Lena spoke up, pulling all eyes on her and her plucky smile, “if she was taught under you, she must be incredible in a fight, right? If she gets into trouble we can protect her, it’ll be fine!”

“Lena--”

“Reinhardt.”

Reinhardt’s brow furrowed a little bit, looking from Winston to Lena to Brigitte and back to Winston again before an exasperated sigh escaped him. He was too tired to keep arguing about this, him and his squire had gone on and on about it all throughout the journey here and he had no reason to say no to her, not after all the points she had brought up to him.

But that never stopped him from trying.

“Fine,” the large man finally gave in, pulling a surprised look from Brigitte, “but! _But_... there is a training area in this watchpoint. You are my student, so I have always gone easy on you, but now that you want to be in a real fight, the gloves are off! If you get hurt, you get back up and keep fighting!”

“I’m not as reckless as you, Reinhardt - and not as slow!” A determined grin spread across her face, “I won’t let you down!”

“I know you won't.”

Winston and Lena shared a relieved sigh between one another, seeing that the crusader and squire were finally done squabbling now that Reinhardt had finally given in to letting her join the operation. It wasn’t long before Winston offered them keycards to go settle into their rooms while Lena stayed down in the main room with Winston to catch up with him. They hadn’t seen each other ever since a previous Christmas that occurred right before the attacks on Watchpoint Gibraltar, it was always nice to catch up with a dear and very close friend.

During their conversation, he discovered that Lena had a run in with Talon’s own _Widowmaker_ , Gerards kidnapped and brainwashed wife. Lena had been trying to spectate a public appearance of Tekhartha Mondatta when she spotted her on the rooftop with the full intention of assassinating the omnic monk; as they both knew, she succeeded. Lena elaborated to Winston she believed it had been her fault for not sacrificing herself to protect Mondatta as Widowmakers sights were set on her chronal accelerator - not wanting it to be destroyed and becoming affected by her chronal disassociation, she rewound herself to avoid being shot… the bullet piercing Mondatta instead.

Lena knew she played right into Widowmakers hands. She would never forget that night or the loss of the monk who was only trying to create peace between omnics and humans. It was nothing short of baffling to her that anyone in the world could want more war and bloodshed rather than peace after the Omnic Crisis, how many innocent lives, human and omnic, had been taken.

He knew there was no way of telling her that it wasn’t her fault, he knew what it felt like to fail in saving someone important; the day Doomfist broke out of prison, he watched Lena’s chronal accelerator be destroyed right before his very eyes. It was no surprise that she didn’t want to experience her ailment all over again, even if it meant sacrificing herself for one life. It was quiet between them for some time after that, Winston unsure of how to console the normally spry and peppy girl before she excused herself, snatching up her room key with a cheeky smile on her face.

It seemed like just talking about it helped lift some of the weight from her shoulders. At the very least, Winston could find some relief in that.

Lena blinked away, snatching up her bags in the process as she bounced up the stairs, feigning a state she knew others were more accustomed to in seeing her in, however what she admitted to Winston still hung over her in a way she couldn’t properly describe without feeling tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. She talked about it with Emily countless times, only to be given the ‘it wasn’t your fault’ talk that everyone else seemed to give her. She didn’t expect her partner to know exactly what to say to her, but something in the back of her mind made her wish someone could tell her something different that would put her mind at ease once and for all.

All of the ideas rushing through her head of what she might do if she ever encountered Widowmaker again, Gerard's wife or not, made her feel sick. She hated feeling vengeful, even if it was completely normal to feel that way; there were plenty of people who wanted nothing more than to see the woman’s head on a pike… but that wouldn’t solve anything, bloodshed for bloodshed would only cause more problems for the world. Lena never met Amelie, but she knew everyone in Overwatch respected her not only as Gerards wife, but for the woman she was.

What Talon turned her into was absolutely deplorable, unforgivable, downright heinous--

The sound of a door hissing open beside her ripped her out of her thoughts, pulling a gasp out of her as she quickly jumped away in surprise. From behind the door emerged a drowsy, yawning man who was running his hand through his thick dreadlocks. It took Lena a moment or two before it finally clicked who it was standing before her.

“Are you…,” she leaned forward a little bit, squinting to make sure she was seeing right, “you are! You’re Lucio Correia dos Santos! Oh, wicked! Me and my girlfriend absolutely love your music! I had the Christmas single you released this past year stuck in my head for ages!”

“Huh-?” Lucio spoke up, the tiredness still lingering heavily in his voice as he rubbed at one of his eyes - he wasn’t entirely caught up with what was going on, in fact he barely had his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting of the hallway so he was a bit foggy on what was happening at that moment. He just heard someone with a pretty cool accent gushing about his music--

Wait, didn’t he know that voice somehow?

Finally, his vision cleared up as he blinked a couple times, finally taking in who exactly was in front of him and his mind seemed to draw a complete blank. His travels around the world during his tours had always ended him up in places that held exhibits for Overwatch and the heroes that participated in the fight against oppressors. While he didn’t have nearly as much time as he would have liked to take in all of the information, there was always one hero who stood out compared to the rest; Lena Oxton, better known as _Tracer_ , at least that’s what he read from the short bios the exhibits offered.

His mind raced for a moment, not entirely sure what to say before it clicked in his head on what she had been previously going on about.

“Wait, you like my music?” The musicians head cocked off to the side as a touched smile spread across his face. The last type of people he expected to even go near his music were, well basically, _heroes_ of any kind. They surely had better things to do in their freetime but even so, it made his heart skip a beat to think that he could bring them some good vibes in the simplest of way, “I’m happy to hear that, sorry if I don’t sound it… still a little bit groggy, I don’t even know how long I was asleep for.”

“Aw, don’t worry, love! I just got a bit ummm… overexcited is all, haha!” Lena beamed as she adjusted the bag over her shoulder, “didn’t think anyone like you would be joinin’ a band of misfit do-gooders, ya know?”

“You say that like I don’t fit in perfectly,” he was quick to retort, catching the woman off guard.

“Now that you say that, you’re right - you do fit right in with us lot, don’t ya? Considering your own do-goodering in Rio and all.”

It was Lucio’s turn to be caught off guard this time, not entirely realizing that - while he took pride in it - his work in Rio was pretty basic public knowledge, especially to people who might’ve been a fan of his. Generally, it wasn’t anything he really even considered, especially when he took into account nobody really ever brought it up to him… not anyone that wasn’t directly involved that is. Though he had to suppose Overwatch agents had to know about it, he figured Angela Ziegler would have known about it as she actually came to offer a helping hand once or twice, but nothing major.

“Oh, don’t worry, love,” as Lena spoke up, it pulled him out of his thoughts, eyes snapping back to her once more, “it’s almost like a hobby of mine to know of all the heroes the world has to offer, big and small. It helps me sleep at night a l’il better there’s more out there protectin’ the world in any way they can!”

“Wouldn’t be weird of me to say that Overwatch was a bit of an inspiration on that end, right?” Lucio crossed his arms loosely as he leaned up against the door frame.

“What ya mean?”

“Well Overwatch was big, like _big_ big when the issues in Rio were at their highest. Knowin’ you guys were out there makin’ a difference made me think me and my people could make a difference,” Lucio hummed, tapping his foot idly against the floor, “even if lives were lost, didn’t mean we weren’t willin’ to fight back, y’know? To make things better and live our lives without havin’ to be afraid, even if it meant there would be blows to us and our community, didn’t mean we couldn’t build it back up stronger.. Does that make sense? I feel like I’m just like… not making sense, heh...”

Lena was quiet for a moment, a moment that felt almost like an eternity to her as she stared back at Lucio. The short monologue he offered her allowed her a moment of clarity, even despite his words swirling around in her head. _‘There would be blows to us and our community, didn’t mean we couldn’t build it back up stronger.’_ This almost felt all too well-timed with her previous turmoil, almost as though someone or something had edged Lucio into the limelight for her to suddenly realize… these sort of things would happen, but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t fight back and build back stronger.

The grip on her bag tightened slightly at the thought, her eyes flicking down to the floor for a fraction of a second. Why _was_ she letting Mondatta’s untimely demise eat at her so much? She did in fact play into Widowmaker’s hand by getting out of the way of her shot, but now she was simply letting herself be entrapped in the assassins web by letting it weigh her down the way it did. Mondatta inspired humans and omnics alike, his death shouldn’t have been taken in vain as though everything he helped create would instantly shatter with his death or that Lena was the one who pulled the trigger - was she really being so silly this entire time? Lucio surely witnessed his fair share of death and loss but pushed past it, made sure that he would limit the body count but didn’t stop when he couldn’t save one life.

To him, it just meant he needed to work harder and faster to reach his goal.

“Tracer--?” Lucio piping up pulled her out of her train of thought, a look of what Lucio could only determine as shock or surprise on her face, “oh er… I mean, Ms Oxton!”

He quickly corrected himself, offering a sheepish smile - he had no idea if she wanted to be called by her codename still, or if she was even comfortable with him referring to her with her first name. It just so happened it was kind of like habit to refer to her as _’Tracer.’_

“Lena’s fine,” she spoke, though her tone was much softer than it had been previously, “thank you, Lucio. You made me realize somethin’, so don’t worry… what you said made perfect sense.”

“Wait, really?” Lucio squeaked, obviously surprised that she could even understand what he was trying to elaborate, “I thought it just sounded like I was makin’ stuff up on the fly, haha…”

“Not in any sense of the word, love! I don’t think I’d be able to even begin to explain to you how much what you said helped me just now…,” Lena giggled quietly to herself, the tight grip around the strap of her bag finally loosening a little bit, “maybe it’s just who you are, huh? That’s good, innit? To just naturally be… you! Ah, now I’m the one who ain’t makin’ any sense, hahaha!”

“I think it just comes with the territory of being a, as you put it, _’do-gooder.’_ ”

The Brit couldn’t help but crack up as Lucio seamlessly brought the conversation all the way back around to the beginning, forcing a pleased smile onto her face. He knew Tracer - or _Lena_ \- was known for being bright and bubbly in combat, this attitude making herself almost an icon of sorts as far as the faces of Overwatch went, but he never knew she was so incredibly carefree. Honestly, the idea of just working with her in a real scenario seemed like a blast. The positivity from her could brighten any bad situation it felt like.

Though, he couldn’t help but wonder… what was eating at her before that his admittedly bumbling of words helped appease? The musician opened his mouth to ask but was cut off before he could even begin to speak as one of the doors not too far from the two of them hissed opened, outstepping Genji who seemed to be fidgeting with what looked like clasps on his headgear.

“Genji!”

Lena exclaimed, wasting no time dropping her bags onto the ground before blinking over to the cyborg ninja to embrace him in a tight hug. Genji let out a surprised noise at the sudden contact, not entirely anticipating for the over-excited girl to be there the moment he emerged from his shared room, but hugged her back nonetheless.

“Lena, I did not know you had arrived already! It is good to see you, my friend,” Genji spoke with a sense of happiness in his voice and Lucio could swear if his face weren’t hidden by that mask, he’d be smiling quite a bit right about now. “It has been far too long, how have you been?”

“Oh, ya know,” Lena pulled out of the embrace, allowing Genji some room to breathe, “ups and downs, but nothin’ all that new. Honestly, I’m surprised to see you here. I figured you’d want nothin’ to do with Overwatch anymore.”

“The world is changing again, Lena. I can’t stand by and not take part,” Genji simply mused, placing his hands on his hips.

“Ah…,” Lena responded, seeming at a loss for words as he took a quick peek back at Lucio, “well ain’t you two just full of philosophicals makin’ me brain think more than usual! It’s almost like you’re on the same sorta wavelength type of deal!”

“Huh?”

Lucio and Genji questioned in near unison, causing the Brit to snort and quickly slap a hand over her mouth.

“Nothin’, nothin’! Hahaha!” Lena laughed out before blinking back away from Genji to scoop up her bags once more, “Genji, let’s catch up after I unpack, yeah? It’s been too long!”

“I would love to Lena - my master reminded me that I have not eaten in quite some time, I had planned on retiring for the night before he mentioned it,” Genji spoke with a sense of embarrassment in his tone, “I was going to ask Winston if this outpost had been stocked with consumables yet.”

“Ummm…,” Lena started, reaching up to tap on her chin a couple times, “when Overwatch was shut down, a lot of watchpoints like this one were cleared out. I don’t think Winston has taken that into account quite yet, especially with all the peanut butter jars all over his table.”

“If there ain’t anything here-,” Lucio finally found it safe to interject, the two of them immediately looking to him, “-there _is_ a village not too far from here, maybe a mile or two out. I stopped there for a bite to eat, people there are pretty friendly honestly. I think the place was called--”

“Lauterbrunnen. Master and I stopped there as well on our way here.”

“You all stopped for rest?”

“Lena, are you telling me you didn’t?” Genji’s head cocked off to the side as he stared at her.

“You’ll never know, love. Anywaaaays, I need to go unpack!”

Before the cyborg could get another word in, Lena blinked her away down the hall. He could take chase, but it wouldn’t change the fact that she wasn’t willing to own up to wearing herself down the way she did. With a small sigh, he turned his attention back to Lucio who offered him a mildly concerned look.

“Thank you for reminding me of the village, I’ll go procure some produce before it gets too late--”

“You think you’re goin’ alone?”

“Huh?”

Genji was slightly taken aback by the statement, blinking a couple of times from behind his mask. It was impossible he had heard incorrectly if he took into account the enhancements to his hearing his headgear offered him (though, only because Angela was worried it would obstruct his auditory process), it was simply the idea that Lucio was implying that he’d accompany him.

“Ehm--” he cleared his throat, regaining some composure, “that’s not necessary, I’m capable of--”

“It’ll be faster if I go with you,” Lucio shot him a sly grin, “just let me grab my stuff and I’ll be right there.”

Before he could even begin to argue, Lucio disappeared back into his room, the automatic door hissing closed. Genji simply stood there, rubbing idly at the back of his head; it wasn’t that he was necessarily ungrateful for the company, however he didn’t want it to seem like he was dragging anyone along with him, especially someone he’d only met a few hours ago. Regardless, running away now seemed like cowardice to him. If Lucio wanted to join him, who was he to say no?

Genji propped himself up against the wall beside the musicians door and quietly waited. This, at the very least, would offer him the opportunity to learn more about the other man.


	5. Chapter 5

It hadn’t been long at all until Lucio reemerged from his room, skates encasing his legs and the sound of velcro being adjusted and readjusted a couple of times. Genji’s eyes were caught by the gentle glow of the blades just beneath the DJ’s foot armor, the green hue reminding him of the color of his own cybernetics. As he looked up from his glove, he immediately took note of Genji’s visor glued to his skate and he couldn’t help but give a small smile, one that made the ninja look away. The feeling of embarrassment crept up his neck and burned the tips of his ears, though he was sure Lucio didn’t mind him idly admiring them.

“Maaaybe I’ll have to let you give ‘em a spin sometime, since you’ve been showin’ an awful lot of interest in them all day,” Lucio joked, flashing him a toothy grin, “I could even teach you some fun tricks.”

Without saying another word, the musician who had invited himself along on Genji’s journey glided down the hallway on his skates, slow at first before suddenly kicking off at a surprising speed that left Genji wide-eyed. He watched Lucio abruptly prop himself up on the wall as though gravity were absolutely no issue for him as he zipped down the corridor leaving only a trail of flowing neon green behind him. It took a moment or two before Genji realized he was getting very, _very_ left behind already.

Genji called out for the other to wait before dashing down the hallway to catch up, stopping at the top of the staircase where he watched Lucio grind down the railing to the bottom floor. As he landed on the floor, the musician smoothly spun around once, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked up at the cyborg.

“You know… I didn’t think it was to this sort of extent when you said you could ‘stick to walls.’”

“You should see it when I turn it up!”

“... _’Turn it up?’_ ”

“It’s-- ah, I’ll show you on the way.”

Genji couldn’t help but give an amused hum before he dashed down the stairs, causing Lucio to double take as he seemingly disappeared and reappeared right beside him. He opened his mouth to mention what he just watched, pointing from the top of the stairs to where Genji was now with a simple _’how did you…?’_ managing to make it out. Though, should he really have questioned it? The guy was, quite literally from the looks of it, a super Power Rangers type of robot guy!

Though, he probably wouldn’t be too fond of Lucio of all people calling him that, so he’d just keep it to himself for now. Lucio offered him an impressed smile, one that he could swear Genji returned from behind that mask with the way his head cocked to the side ever so slightly, before he began heading for the door with him following closely beside. They mentioned to Winston - who was very engrossed in some sort of project, a screwdriver between his teeth and a mess of wires and scrap metal scattered around his workspace - where they were headed and with a mumbled and distracted _’okay’_ from the gorilla they set off.

Once outside, Lucio traced his fingers through the air and the sound emanating from his skates grew louder, making Genji watch on curiously. Feeling the gaze on him, Lucio couldn’t help but look up at Genji and offer a sheepish smile.

“Oh-,” he started, glancing away for a moment, “-that looks weird, doesn’t it?”

“I am just wondering how you’re doing that,” Genji responded, the curiosity that played in his voice coming off as a bit surprising, Lucio had to admit to himself.

“I have it set up so that this glove works almost identical to a slider, by moving my fingers up or down in the air, it detects the movement to do whatever I have it set to. Right now, I have it set to adjust the volume rather than act as a pitch slider or trigger pad or whatever I might use in like a different scenario from this,” he did his best to explain to the other.

Surprisingly enough, Genji was watching very intently as he demonstrated the change in volume with each movement of his hand. It wasn’t often he got to see anyone so genuinely interested in his gadget, mostly considering a lot of people were just out to try and copy the tech to begin with so he didn’t really share it… but he knew he could trust Genji, he had no reason to steal a DJ’s tech.

Right?

Right, of course he wouldn’t, what would he even do with it?

Of course, attempts at reassuring himself never made him any less paranoid.

“Wait, why are we just standin’ around? We gotta get us some grub to bring back before the sun goes down, right?” Lucio looked up at the limited sky that peaked through the rock and stone that was the mountainside that hid away the entrance to the watchpoint - it had to be around three or four in the afternoon at least, “perfect opportunity to show you what my music can do, huh?”

“Your music? Right, your music can heal people or give them buffs in an aura around yourself, correct?” Genji spoke up once more, interest ever being piqued.

“You got it, my guy! You’re fast on your feet, but do you think you can handle bein’ _faster_?” The musician grinned excitedly as he pushed forward to begin rolling smoothly out of the perimeter of the watchpoint, Genji following suit.

“I apologize if I’m underestimating your abilities, but I don’t believe that’s entirely possible,” Genji said with a small bow of his head. While he attempted to keep his tone neutral, Lucio couldn’t help but pick up on the small tinge of challenge within it.

With how quick Genji was previously and how it caught it very off guard, it made Lucio increasingly curious to see how much he could actually enable him in. The musician was always all about the idea of being incredibly slippery and hard to hit for any enemies that might have their sights on him, being fast was a must in that department. However, Genji seemed to use his speed not for running away but engaging on his target of choice, something that Lucio dabbled in every now and then but never pursued too closely. An in-and-out style was much more enjoyable.

Lucio idly flicked his fingers through the air, choosing his track of choice as it quietly played for the time being while they made their exit out of the main entry way of the watchpoint. He found himself absentmindedly humming to the tune of the track as he adjusted his glove a little bit before, gripping and relaxing his hand in the process. He felt Genji watching him curiously, his skepticism still shining true for the moment.

“You ready?” Lucio spun around on his skate with a charming smile, gliding his way down the neglected, cracked pavement backwards.

“As I’ll ever be.”

Lucio chuckled to himself - he knew he was hyping this up way more than he needed to, but he knew how jarring it could be to somebody who’d never experienced the effects of his music. Nevertheless, Lucio seamlessly spun back around and pushed his hand up to the sky, the music in his skates immediately pumping out at a much higher volume than previous. In an instant, the two of them were pushed forward by the fast paced rhythm that practically guided them down the road to their destination.

To say that he was surprised was an incredible understatement for Genji.

The ninja had gone from a leisurely walking speed to jogging to a break-neck sprint all in one instant as soon as Lucio moved his hand. His heart pumping in his chest, breath practically being ripped from his generally weak lungs, a sense of pure adrenaline rushing throughout his body as the blood running through his veins both artificial and organic seemed to run cold; the sensation was something he could barely come to compare to any other, it almost felt as though he were running on his own two legs, again.

He felt the phantom sensation of the air brushing against his skin and face as the two of them travelled down the otherwise empty road, something that he rarely experienced when simply using what Angela had given him to bring him back from the brink. The sound of the music thumping and almost dancing all on its own right beside him gave him a sense of excitement, almost as though he were being given a childlike wonder from the tunes that played against his ears. Genji couldn’t help but glance down at Lucio, the bright smile on his face causing a strange warmth in his chest that seemed to creep itself up his throat for a moment. He felt almost as though he could feel that same sensation of just pure joy radiating from the musician.

He seemed as though, even if he’d done this a million times before, that he was having the time of his life just using the technology he made his own.

Genji couldn’t help but find himself smiling as well from behind his headgear, a type of smile that he could only recall from when he was younger, when he lived in his home without a care in the world. It brought him back to when he would tease his brother, leave Shimada castle to go hang around the local Arcade in Hanamura, impress those around him by securing the high score on each and every cabinet there. He recalled his once rebellious nature, teasing residents and tourists alike with many of the other teens and children who resided within the district.

How is it that Lucio’s music and blissful expression was able to bring back such cherished memories from within his own mind's eye? Perhaps it was just circumstance, though he’d never know unless he brought it up with Lucio himself. It wasn’t an urgent matter, despite knowing fully well that the thought would always linger in the back of his mind until it was brought up. 

He would ask about it, eventually.

With the DJ’s assistance, it didn’t take long at all for them to reach the Swiss alpine village of Lauterbrunnen, the rolling emerald green hills and steep mountainous rock that surrounded the small town creating a sense of awe and wonder. The entire place looked almost like something straight out of a fairytale - at least, that was all Lucio could compare it to.

Twisting his wrist, the volume of the music dropped significantly as well as a change in the track created a relaxing aura between the two of them after their high speed form of travel. Flashing a small smile up at Genji, Lucio wasted no time rolling into the village while he was distracted, leaving him behind for the time being. The ninja didn’t quite seem to notice him depart until he was no longer in sight, Lucio having disappeared into a nearby market to look through the produce offered.

“Lucio?” Genji spoke up, looking around for a moment in an attempt to find him just on sight alone before he quickly headed into the village in hopes of tracking him down, “Lucio, we should stay together… where did you go?”

He mumbled quietly to himself as he wandered further into the village, reaching to the back of his head to rub at it while his free hand shoved itself into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. The town wasn’t big by any means, in fact it was made to be kept small throughout time despite the innovations of the world around it. It was a tourist destination for Switzerland, one that many hikers and mountain climbers would often stop at for rest. The scenery around the village was like none other and honestly he couldn’t blame them for wanting to keep it relatively simple. Genji had visited once or twice previously when Overwatch was still active, he recalled them… not being very welcome there in the beginning but they slowly grew on them once they made themselves to be no threat.

Genji wandered around the village, hoping to spot any semblance of the shorter male or at least catch the sound of his skates rolling by before he stopped, glancing down an alley to notice a faint purple glow from within it. His brow furrowed a little bit from behind his mask, taking a small note of the slight disturbance before he simply stepped away. As long as whoever it was didn’t make themselves a threat to him or his companion, it wasn’t worth looking into for the time being.

Before he had time to process anything else, a hand on his shoulder stopped him, causing him to freeze up and prepare to defend himself.

“Hey, check it out!” The voice immediately made him relax and Genji looked down to its owner who held up a paper bag, “scored some veg and a loaf of fresh baked bread!”

“You should be careful, Lucio. You never know who might be watching us now that Overwatch has been called to regroup,” Genji sighed quiet, watching Lucio snatch a bright red apple from the bag and take a bite from it, “what do we intend to make, anyway?”

“Oh,” Lucio paused, placing the apple in his mouth as he rolled up the bag of produce to keep it from being too much of an issue. He bit into the apple once more, chewing a couple of times before swallowing, “I was gonna try makin’ vaca atolada if we can find the rest of the ingredients around here. Didn’t expect ‘em to have fresh cassava so I grabbed a couple of those!”

“... Vaca atolada?”

“It’s a dish mostly popular in Southeast Brazil, but some of the people in Rio taught me how to make it when I was a teenager. Made right, it can feed loads of people for a pretty long time,” Lucio smiled up at Genji, “it’s kinda like a beef stew, though the way I make it it’s kinda spicy.”

“I see…,” Genji hummed, “what else are we going to need in order to create this dish?”

“Well… beef stock, tomato paste, short ribs or just stew beef whichever, spices, rice to help soak up some of the heat, and I think that’s it.”

“I can offer you two some help, if you need it.”

The voice just behind them caused Lucio to whip around in surprise as Genji simply turned to look back at it’s owner. The woman behind them had a dark purple and blue hood obscuring her face, though the similarly toned lipstick framing a strangely unsettling grin peaked out from beneath it. To Lucio, it seemed like something out of one of those ‘don’t trust strangers!’ adverts that would play for kids to keep them from getting abducted, as bad as that sort of thought process made him feel.

He found himself rolling back a little bit on his skates, unsure of exactly what to say in response, all the while glancing from her to Genji in hopes that he’d take the reins for just this moment. To see someone so shrouded and hidden in an otherwise bright, beautiful place just felt _off_ , it spun a strange sensation of panic inside of him that he couldn’t describe let alone elaborate to the man standing beside him without coming off as rude.

“It would be greatly appreciated,” Genji finally spoke up as he turned fully to her, bowing slightly.

“Great!” She smiled a little bit wider before she pulled off her hood to reveal a side-shaved head, her hair going from dark brown to a light purple down to the tips, the obvious cybernetics placed neatly on the side of her head catching their attention almost instantly. She stood out quite a bit, from the purple hues of her clothes right down the long nails of his fingers. It made Lucio feel uneasy, to say the least, “there’s a small supermarket down the street, I can show you if you’re okay with that.”

“Sure thing, thanks a lot for the help,” Lucio offered a small smile.

“By the way,” she started as she began heading in the aforementioned direction, “ _love_ your music.”

The musician felt as though the tone of her voice was somehow very… condescending. Almost as if she was mocking people who relayed their enjoyment for his music to him on a regular basis, whether it be in person, from the crowd, or even from one of his promotional outlets. Chewing nervously on his bottom lip, he followed her alongside Genji, who he couldn’t even begin to tell what he was thinking at this point.

The ninja’s demeanor had taken a dramatic shift, he seemed more tense now, as though he were completely on guard while earlier on their way to the village, he seemed incredibly open and carefree. It might have just been the effects of the music making him seem all that much more responsive, but even before that he was shooting jokes toward him and… well, seeming almost like a happy puppy when it came to Angela and Lena. What happened when he went to go grab the produce? Had he upset him by suddenly disappearing?

Okay, no more thinking, he was starting to feel bad for quite possibly no reason at all now.

As they travelled down the street, Genji turned his attention down to Lucio, tapping his arm gently to catch his attention. He nodded toward the stranger leading them, to which Lucio could only shrug a little bit. Genji knew that it would be best to avoid any sort of combat scenario in this small of a village, if she did turn out to be a threat it would be dangerous for every civilian around them.

“Excuse me,” Genji called out to her, catching her attention as she offered a small ‘hmm?’ in response, “do you live here? You don’t seem to be a native.”

“Ahaha, no no. I just like to travel, is all. It’s much easier nowadays, you know?”

“I agree. It’s nice to be able to get out and see the world.”

“See, you get it!” The stranger turned around so that she was walking backwards, hands outstretched to Genji slightly. “Ah, my friends are so uppity about it sometimes! They think I’ll get myself in trouble for some reason, but I’ve been fine so far. They always like what I bring back, at least.”

“So you get them a lot of presents on your travels?” Lucio smiled a little bit, though she just cocked an eyebrow and turned back around while inspecting her nails.

“Something like that.”

Lucio’s smile dropped, brow furrowing a little bit as he just looked down at the sidewalk. It felt strange the way she spoke to him, he couldn’t help but wonder why.

Once they reached the market, Lucio and Genji stepped inside with the stranger following suit, though it wasn’t long before she parted from them to a completely different section of the store. While Genji had wanted to keep an eye on her, he opted to keep close to Lucio in case of any trouble while he looked for the ingredients he needed. He had trouble trusting obviously shadier strangers, especially when he was involved in anything Overwatch related - while this wasn’t a mission of any sort, he still felt as though there were people out there ready to bite at a moment's notice.

They procured the items they needed and soon after they left the market, leaving the stranger behind without any goodbye’s or names exchanged. The stranger herself, however, had exited through the back of the market and situated herself back in the shadows as he tapped away at the purple screens that floated in the air in front of her all while she leaned comfortably back against a wall.

“Told you they were here, Gabe.”

_”Don’t call me that, Sombra,”_ the voice in her earpiece hissed, _”of all the watchpoints they could have picked… I can't say I’m surprised. The monkey is smart to choose a smaller one.”_

“All it took was tracking the oh-so-famous international DJ anyway, do you know how many people took pictures of him and posted them on social media while he travelled here? Kind of ridiculous if you ask me,” she laughed a little bit, sliding through the various images she had obtained - as well as some ones she had taken herself, “so what’s the plan, boss?”

_”We wait for now until we get orders from him.”_

Sombra huffed audibly, clearly not looking forward to sitting around.

_”Sombra.”_

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“I got it.”

Genji and Lucio headed to the outskirts of the town before the DJ began setting up their travel method, swapping through the tracks until he found the exact one he needed before he paused.

“Any idea who that was?”

“None at all,” Genji responded, glancing behind them to make sure they weren’t being followed, “but she seemed… suspicious.”

“Should we tell Winston?” Lucio gripped the paper bag in his hands a little tighter, “if we might be in danger then-”

“I believe Winston has enough on his hands currently,” he quickly hushed the other, looking back to him with a soft gaze from behind his visor. Lucio seemed to relax a little bit at the small shift of Genji’s demeanor, “if she shows up again, then we will know. Making any rash judgements right now will only cause more stress.”

“Right… right.”

Despite what he said, it only seemed to make Lucio paranoid about the situation, understandably so. The woman was not ordinary in the slightest and her timely arrival made things seem dangerous all of a sudden. But the idea that the location of multiple Overwatch agents being discovered so easily by a singular person seemed very unlikely to him. Even so, that might not help calm Lucio’s mind.

Genji paused for a moment before he reached out, placing his hand on Lucio’s shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze.

“It will all be alright. If anything happens, I’ll be able to protect you as well as everyone else if need be,” Genji smiled a little bit.

Lucio opened his mouth to speak before closing it again, eyes wide as he stared up at Genji, his statement swirling around in his head for what seemed like forever. Why was it so reassuring coming from him? If it were anyone else, he felt like it would have come off as ingenuine. Something about the way Genji reassured him, though…

He felt his heart skip a beat.

Genji is really cool, isn’t he?

Lucio felt his face heat up a little bit at the thought as he quickly snapped his attention down to the ground beneath his skates.

“Pssshhh, nah! I’d be fiiiine! I don’t need no protectin’, I can handle myself! Hahaha!”

The musician blurted out without much restraint in the tone of his voice, small cracks here and there breaking the facade he was attempting to portray to the other. Lucio cleared his throat, hesitating for a split second before he looked back up at Genji, a big goofy grin having spread across his face.

“Hey, I’ll race ya back-!”

“Oh?” Genji gave an amused hum at the challenge, placing his hands on his hips as he carefully watched the other, “I’ll gladly accept if you think you can beat me.”

“Oh, I certainly do. Just think you might have trouble keepin’ up!”

Without another word, Lucio pushed his hand through the air, speeding off without hesitation in hopes to catch the other off guard only to find him almost instantly able to catch up. He couldn’t get over how fast the warrior was, it made him feel a bizarre sense of excitement to witness someone with so much at their disposal. But no matter how interesting or amazing Genji was, that wasn’t going to make him _not_ pull out all the stops for their little race! 

He was bound and determined to beat him in their friendly competition!

This totally wasn’t a ploy to distract himself from the odd feelings that were stirring up over him, definitely not.

It didn’t take long in the slightest for them to reach the once abandoned watchpoint when the both of them were at top speed, rushing down the roads without fear of being stopped on their path. While he was sure it would have been a tiring journey to and from the village, Lucio found himself surprisingly exhilarated. As he rolled to a stop, he grabbed onto Genji’s arm, panting quietly.

“Man, how aren’t you out of breath? We just went at it as though our lives depended on it-” Lucio laughed a little bit, then jumped as several gears across Genji’s body shifted and clicked, steam expelling from them in the process before resetting themselves. “I--... okay then.”

“My body is designed for fast paced situations, it would take quite a bit more than some running to tire me out,” Genji spoke in an amused tone as he watched Lucio catch his breath. “It’s not as if it were a long run, anyway.”

The musician gave a bewildered look up at him.

“Uh, yeah sure. Two miles totally ain’t a lot, haha!”

“The next time we go out, I can always carry you if it is too exhausting of a journey.”

“I--” His eyes went wide and he quickly snapped his mouth shut, cheeks puffing out a little bit.

“How should I take that?” The ninja crossed his arms as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

As confident and relaxed as Lucio made himself out to be, it was incredibly easy to fluster him with the right set of words. It was a rare occasion that he found someone he was able to tease so easily without them immediately catching on to his antics - beyond that, seeing the reactions the other gave was quite endearing for some strange reason. He wouldn’t say he got entertainment from watching Lucio go completely speechless, just something about him being in that type of state was enjoyable to witness.

Perhaps he would have to lighten up on him a little bit however, unless he wanted to end up actually upsetting him without actually meaning to. The sound of Lucio laughing a little bit pulled him out of his thoughts.

“You maybe a super cool, strong, fast dude but I’m sure I can find somethin’ that’ll overwhelm you or even tire you out,” the grin that Lucio offered him was slightly surprising, “come on, we should head instead. Suns goin’ down pretty fast anyway.”

Genji hummed quietly in response, not entirely sure what to say to that. It certainly was a loaded statement all around. Nevertheless, the two of them headed inside of the watchpoint where they found an empty room, no Winston in sight. Athena offered them a welcome back as they stepped inside, the fluorescent lights flickering on above them. The cyborg motioned for Lucio to follow him, leading him through a door just off the side of the main room and down the hall to the kitchen.

The lights there too flipped on as soon as they entered, the area surprisingly clean despite barely receiving any use since anyones arrival, the stainless steel that was the counters shining brightly as if they’d never been touched at all. If Genji had to guess that Angela had been the one to clean it up and begin using it, the scent of the same cleaners she used in her office still lingering in the air. Lucio rolled himself up to one of the counters, placing his bag of vegetables down on it before he began searching for the tools he’d need for the meal.

“Man, I haven’t been in a kitchen in months… tourin’ around usually doesn’t let me have this kind of fun!” Lucio beamed as he grabbed a cutting board, a couple of knives, and a large cast iron dutchoven.

Genji stepped over to join him, placing his own bag down on the table as he watched Lucio practically dance around the kitchen, grabbing everything he’d need for the prep work.

“You most likely have many people waiting on your hand and foot, correct?”

“Uhhh sorta… I usually don’t like lettin’ ‘em though. I can take care of myself, after all,” Lucio flashed Genji a smile, “ain’t like I haven’t been doin’ it for long enough anyway, haha!”

In an attempt to show off to the other, he idly spun the knife in his hand around his fingers though as soon as the makeshift show started it ended as the knife slipped from his hand. In his panic, he moved to catch it so it wouldn’t go crashing to the ground, only to have Genji quickly snatch it up before any damage could be done. Lucio let out a relieved sigh, offering the other a sheepish smile.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t play with knives,” Genji stated as he carefully set it down on the cutting board.

“...Right, heh…”

Lucio got to work with the prep they would need to do, offering Genji his own work to do to help the process go faster. He busied the ninja with peeling and cutting the cassava while he himself worked on cutting the meat. Though, even as intently as he was working, he could help but notice how swiftly Genji was able to work, cutting the cassava quickly and efficiently without any trouble at all.

He couldn’t help but stare until Genji noticed his gaze on him rather than his own cutting board and quickly locked eyes with him.

“Uh-,” Lucio stammered, “h-how do you… uh… I mean… you’re fast.”

“I thought we had established this already,” Genji grinned from behind his headgear, that familiar amusement in his voice, “I used to help in the kitchen quite a bit when I was younger, it helped me practice my knife skills.”

“I’ve never been able to wrap my head around knife work… I always get scared I’m gonna slice my finger off or something, haha.” Lucio quickly looked away, fingers tapping idly against his cutting board.

“Would you like me to show you?”

“Huh?”

Once again, his attention was immediately brought back to the cyborg with one simple thing. 

“Would you like me to show you?” Genji reiterated, offering the knife he’d been using to Lucio, “it’s simple once you practice enough.”

Lucio opened his mouth to speak, but his words seemed to entirely escape him, that same flushed sensation creeping up his neck at the offer. Not able to find it in him to say no he reached over to take the knife as Genji swapped places with him for the time being. Lucio hesitated for a moment before he began cutting the cassava at a slow but reasonable pace as he usually would when preparing vegetables before he felt the surprisingly warm yet hard palm slide over the back of his hand and adjust his grip for him.

“Holding the knife like this allows for more control,” Genji hummed from behind Lucio as he began assisting him with cutting the produce. “Rather than moving the knife when you are cutting, move what you are cutting so that you can keep your rhythm.”

The musician swallowed the lump that had started to form in his throat and simply did as instructed - as it turned out, this was definitely way more efficient than what he was doing previously. Having Genji instruct him seemed to help quite a bit as well, any anxieties instantly quelled just by having him there. It was a little strange however, how he could find himself so surprisingly comfortable around someone he’d only spent a handful of hours just on this first day alone.

Probably because the guy was so chilled out himself that he didn’t seem like a threat in the slightest… it was comforting, to say the least.

“Perfect.”

Genji’s hand slipped away from his own, pulling Lucio out of his train of thought. He looked back at him, smiling a little bit.

“Yeah? Almost as good as you, huh?” He grinned a little bit before giving a small laugh, “dang dude, guess you’ll have to be around whenever I think I might lose some digits!”

“I can certainly oblige, just ask and I’ll be there,” the happiness that found its way into Genji’s voice was all too apparent to Lucio, making his smile grow a little bit.

The entire idea of getting to spend more time with his new teammate would never bore him, simply learning even the smallest things about the other seemed like a whole adventure on it’s own. He just hoped he could offer the same sort of joy right back - after all, it was rare he had the opportunity to just get to know people without being pulled away for something else. Now he had the opportunity to learn about so many people all while helping them save the world.

It seemed almost like a dream come true to him.

Pulling themselves together, Genji and Lucio finished up the prep work and began cooking the vaca atolada so as to not waste anymore time. There seemed to be plenty for not only themselves but everyone else making their new residence the watchpoint and then some. The smell emanating from the kitchen was enough in of itself to draw out several individuals to see exactly what was going on. It put a smile on Lucio’s face to know so many people were thrilled to try one of his favorite dishes to make.

Once it was ready, the two of them managed to gather everyone up for the meal - the compliments and thanks shared to the both of them resonating a sense of pride for them. Lucio couldn’t help but find himself thanking Genji at every turn for the assistance he offered him, claiming he’d find some way to repay him for not only allowing him to tag along for the ingredients but also putting up with him and his antics.

Genji didn’t mind the company from Lucio whatsoever, in fact… while he wouldn’t admit it to anyone else right now at the risk of his pride, he was a little bit sad to see him retire for the night, disappearing into his room after sharing some goodnights and goodbyes. Spending the afternoon with the DJ proved to be more enjoyable than he anticipated and he found himself hoping he could find more time to set aside for him in the coming weeks.

The cyborg stepped into the kitchen, not having eaten quite yet due to not wanting to remove his mask in front of everyone else; he reached back to undo the clasps of his headgear, setting it on the counter after making himself a plate of the delicious smelling meal that graced his senses and proceeded to pierce a little bit of everything with the utensil he could find.

Once it touched his tongue, he felt a warmth envelop his body, the flavor bringing a comforting feeling to him as it lingered over his taste buds. The added spices that Lucio put in sent a chilled sensation across his senses and he took in a deep breath through his nose before a low hum escaped him. He didn’t know what it was about this dish but it felt like…

… It felt as though it was made with nothing but love.


	6. Chapter 6

It was the early hours of the morning, Lucio had woken up especially early with the idea of making breakfast for anyone willing to be up for it. The faux lighting from the window in his otherwise dull room was lowly lit in a yellowish orange tone, hints of blue framing it neatly as if to appear like the morning sky. He had hopped into the shower, washing away the previous days filth, sweat, and grime with the almost scalding hot water, keeping his hair away from the running water for fear of ruining his dreadlocks.

The whole first week had gone by smoothly, Genji and Lucio had gone out to the village several times to procure groceries and food for the watchpoint on several different occasions together. Each visit allowed the two of them to get to know one another better and better, even if it were just the simplest of things about each other; it especially allowed Genji to become accustomed to Lucio's preferred method of travel. The breakneck speeds weren’t nearly as jarring the second time around, even less so the third.

However the charge on his power source was starting to fizzle out, even if he could recharge them from a power outlet. They weren’t accustomed to this much use, especially considering he only used them every now and then nowadays - more often than not, he’d bust them out for a quick show entrance or a skate around a city he might’ve been visiting. Seeing as to how Genji had been so curious about them and their function, he couldn’t help but show them off to him and give little details every now and then about how they worked.

Being able to talk about the tech brought a lot of weight off his shoulders, weight he didn’t even know he had until now. He was always incredibly careful around strangers, but around the cyborg it all just felt easy to say the least. Perhaps it was just the idea of not having made any new acquaintances or friends in such a long time that brought out the more social side of him; meeting fans backstage and for autograph signings was nice, but it was rare he made a real connection with them. Lucio couldn’t help but wonder what it was about Genji that made him open up almost immediately.

He spent time with Hana, Lena, Winston, and even two other arrivals he hadn’t had the opportunity to greet until after the first meal he made for everyone, but each interaction with all of them were wildly different from the one that seemed to be on his mind the most. Something about it all kept him up in the wee hours of the night, mind swirling with fresh memories, thoughts, and hopes of nothing but good times ahead of them all. Lucio took in a small breath before he shut off the shower and began to step out to dry himself off.

The chilled air of the underground room forced him to move quickly, wrapping the towel around his whole body to help in holding in any warmth possible with a shiver pulling through him. Lucio made quick work of drying off before snatching up his toothbrush from the stainless steel sink and squeezing a glob of toothpaste onto it. He popped the bristled end into his mouth as he wrapped the towel around his waist and moved to step out of the bathroom while idly brushing his teeth.

He seated himself on his bed as he gave a small sigh, pondering on what exactly he should do for the day. He knew he wanted to ask Genji if he wanted to help cook with him, but the night previous Angela had come and asked the ninja to speak with her. He wasn’t entirely sure how long they were talking for or what it was about, for all he knew Genji could have been up incredibly late with whatever it was they might’ve been up to and he certainly didn’t want to pry and force him to come help him with a little bit of food prep.

But Genji probably wouldn’t mind, right? Up to this point, he happily helped Lucio with whatever culinary project he was pursuing for the day. Why was he suddenly getting nervous about it now?

Lucio pulled himself out of his less savory thoughts with a shake of his head and stood up once more as the minty toothpaste began to burn at his gums. He headed for the bathroom to wash the substance away before continuing with his morning ritual - which just involved gargling some mouthway, turning on some music while he got dressed, and… well, psyching himself up for whatever the day ahead of him had planned for him. He knew this ramshackle of Overwatch veterans and new-wave heroes wouldn’t be up to anything dangerous for quite a while longer, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t anticipating for there to not be danger right around the corner.

Pulling on a rather baggy t-shirt with a friendly cartoon frog on the front, a pair of comfy grey harem pants, and just some standard black and green high-tops, Lucio headed out of his room while fixing his hair a little bit having opted to keep it down for the day. There were no plans to head out to Lauterbrunnen that day, tying up his hair seemed like an extra step that he could just skip for once. As he wandered down the hall to pop by Genji and Zenyatta’s room to ask if the cyborg wanted to help with breakfast, he spotted Angela not too far down the hallway.

She seemed to perk up a little bit as they locked eyes, a smile making its way over her face as she quickened her pace down the hallway. The closer she got, the easier it was for the DJ to recognize just how tired she looked - the dark circles beneath her eyes and weary smile caught him by surprise considering she usually looked so lively. Lucio’s smile faltered a little bit at this, fearing that she might be wearing herself thin with duties that she neglected to tell everyone else in the watchpoint.

“Lucio, just the person I wanted to see,” Angela called out as she approached him, “I hope your morning is going well so far.”

“It’s goin’ pretty good, ain’t it a bit early for you though, Angela?” Lucio crossed his arms over his chest, watching her freeze up a little bit.

“Um… you see, I just finished up with… _several_ things. That’s part of why I came to see if you were awake yet,” she paused, brushing an unruly piece of hair out of her face, “I wanted to tell you I have the new power source for your gear prepared, all I need is for you to test it out and see if it is to your liking.”

“Oh yeah?” Lucio’s eyes lit up at the information, “I can definitely do that, when and where you need me?”

“Well…,” Angela started and clearly her throat, “... look, I will be up front with you, Lucio. I’m exhausted.”

“I can see that.”

“I have been up for nearly three days because I was preparing for Genji’s augmentations and last night I went along with the procedure, that is why I called him away after the two of you finished making supper for everyone else. As Genji does not need to eat every day simply due to how his body processes nutrients, it was perfect timing to bring him in for the procedure,” she paused, pursing her lips, “he insisted that we should wait until morning, but I was a little bit… eager, to put it plainly.”

Lucio listened closely to what she had to say, shoving his hands into his pockets as he allowed the words to stew in his head for a few moments. Angela really ran herself ragged just to make sure everyone was fully equipped, didn’t she? It was kind of surprising to know how committed she was to making everything as convenient as possible for future endeavors, even if she didn’t have to. He hummed quietly, rocking back and forth on his feet.

“Where does this place me, though?” Lucio’s head tilted a little bit, offering her a curious expression.

“I, well… I would like you to use your music to aid in speeding up the recovery process,” she started, pressing her hands together, “seeing as to how I finished your new power source just in time for Genji’s procedure, I was hoping you would take time out of your day to test it’s reliability by playing your healing music for him… I would do it myself but-”

“You need your rest,” Lucio cut her off, smiling a little bit to which she gave a nervous laugh, “don’t worry, Doc. I got you.”

The relieved look that washed over Angela spoke more than words ever could, the expression on her face softening almost instantly as she quietly thanked Lucio for agreeing to the assistance she so desperately needed.

“If you don’t mind following me, I’ll bring you to the room Genji is currently occupying,” the doctor turned around and started heading down the hallway.

“Got it,” he replied, following without much thought.

“Don’t forget your gear.”

“... Right!”

After retrieving his pack and sonic amplifier, Lucio followed Angela down the hallway to her office where she guided him into an offshoot medical bay, the lights flickering on as they entered. The room was made for the sole purpose of housing the injured or sick, however as of now the only patient residing within happened to be Genji, who was hidden away by stark white curtains for the moment, most likely for his own privacy. The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor pressed flush against the wall beside his bed caught Lucio’s attention, causing him to offer Angela a worried look.

“Oh… oh don’t worry, it is only there to make sure his vitals are stable and his body is taking to the augmentations well,” she spoke in a hushed tone before motioning for the DJ to follow her.

She pulled up a chair for him to seat himself in before disappearing from the room, most likely to go retrieve the battery previously mentioned. Lucio fidgeted with his equipment for a moment, eyes trailing up and down the curtains as well as Genji’s resting silhouette. It seemed as though he were still asleep, understandably so. He had no idea how much it took out of the ninja to go through these sorts of procedures. It was his body, so he had zero doubt it was no easy process for him _or_ Angela.

He leaned back a little bit in his seat, eyes glued to Genji’s frame, wondering if he were asleep or simply lying there. Lucio refrained from looking beyond the curtain, just out of respect for the other man - if Angela put the curtains up, it was most definitely for good reason. But he had to wonder to himself, as he could see unruly hair from the shadow casted on its own, how the warrior looked without the items that hid away his features. Lucio didn’t mind staring at his visor whenever they spoke and he certainly didn’t mind not being able to read his face during odder situations, but to say he didn’t want to know what he looked like beyond the headgear would be a complete lie.

Lucio quickly turned his attention to the tiled floor, licking his lips as he pushed the thoughts out of his mind for the time being. It didn’t take long for Angela to come back into the room, holding a cylindrical shaped object that didn’t look all too different from his usual power source just based off the outside. She handed it to him and watched as he removed the current battery from his sonic amplifier, spinning the new object in his hand a couple of times before placing it securely inside.

Without another word, Mercy left the room and the lights slowly went down to dimly light the room for the time being. Lucio turned on his equipment after pulling on his glove and began rifling through the music in his arsenal before finding the music he found to be the most effective for healing from Synaesthesia Auditiva. The entire album had always been wildly successful for him, not only for situations such as this but also to his fans who brought tracks such as _Rejuvenescência_ to the top of the charts in little to no time at all.

The music had a mellow tone to it, one that could relax and bring most anyone to a relatively peaceful state as opposed to _We Move Together As One_ which was specifically made to get one's blood pumping and excite whoever listened to it. It was what he used to help Genji and himself travel from the watchpoint to the village, it did its job and it did it incredibly well at that.

As he lifted his hand to turn up the volume of the track just a little bit, he took notice of the area around him, a faint yellow glow enveloping the room around them. It was surprising at first, though it didn’t seem to be doing any harm. He glanced down at his sonic amplifier, only able to come to the conclusion that the new power source was in fact working and it was working incredibly well. The flecks of yellow light that lifted and danced through the air with the beat of his music made him relax a little bit, the calming aura around the two of them bringing a smile to Lucio’s face.

He allowed his eyelids to slip shut, simply listening to the music play, gently swaying back and forth along with the rhythm.

A little over an hour passed as the healing beat played. The warmth that wrapped around his body caused him to stir a little bit from his shallow slumber, the gentle music playing within the room catching his attention almost immediately. Genji’s eyes fluttered open just a crack and he stared up at the stark white ceiling for a moment or two before slowly turning his head to see the frame of someone swaying back and forth to the beat of the music. The yellow hue surrounding them gave him a sense of relaxation, one that he hadn’t felt properly in so long.

Genji watched as the person from behind the curtain reached up and pushed their hair back a little bit, the thick locks falling over their other shoulder and the warrior instantly knew who it was. It should have been an easy guess for him, just based off the music alone, but he never knew how many people in the world held the same talents as Lucio or even if he had offered it to someone in the watchpoint to test out. He found the idea a little far fetched, but he had yet to know the extent of Lucio’s trust.

He took a deep breath in, the slight pain in his lungs causing him to let out a quiet whimper however it quickly died down as that same warmth from when he awoke replaced it. The music continued to play, even as Lucio looked up from the small sound that escaped the patient. Neither of them said a word however, only the song filled the quiet space that was between them. Genji watched the DJ turn his attention back down to his lap where he presumed his pack was. He had to wonder if Lucio was doing this of his own volition or if he were shoehorned into it.

Even the night prior, he took notice of how tired Angela was - no matter how much he attempted to argue that she should rest before any procedures took place, she refused to take _no_ for an answer. She was surprisingly stubborn when she wanted to get things done at her own, albeit fast, pace. He wanted to believe that Lucio insisted on offering her the help, even if she tried desperately to do it all on her own… it was rare of her to ask for help, especially when it came to anything medical.

Angela had always been like that, even during his days in Blackwatch. She pushed away Moira, despite her practices being more… ‘suited’ one might say for the types of procedures he would need to undergo - it was relayed to him many times that she didn’t trust Moira in the slightest, not only with Genji’s life but many others as well. As much as Angela protested Moira’s work, she seemed to always find candidates willing to put themselves in danger.

Gabriel Reyes was one person he could recall allowing himself to be modified and toyed with by her God-playing hands.

Genji pulled himself out of the thoughts of his much darker days, pressing the back of his head firmly against the pillow beneath him. He swallowed the odd lump that had begun to form in his throat before he looked back at Lucio’s frame once more.

Every healer he’d met up until now had some rather… extreme practices to say the least; Angela resurrected the fallen, Ana fired syringes into her allies to ward away the pain, Moira pulled the life from her victims and used it to revitalize others, even his master used discord to weaken his foes. However, Lucio seemed to stand apart from all of them, his music creating something completely different than what they all had to offer. He enabled his allies, helping them move faster, stay in longer, encourage them in even the smallest of ways all with simply the power of his music.

It was never anything to do with turning those he deemed worthy into a weapon, it was simply doing what he could to aid everyone around him.

Over the past week, he’d been given the opportunity to learn many things about the DJ, from small quirks to the little things that bugged him. He was a very lively, animated young man, one that anyone would have trouble taking their eyes off of even if he weren’t a celebrity. The days he spent with him were some of the most enjoyable he has had in years. It was almost as though he needed this sort of energy in his life to truly bring him back to the man he once was. Lucio was someone he felt as though he could cherish for a very long time, by any means necessary.

The sound of humming pulling him from his train of thought once more as he caught Lucio humming to the sound of the track playing, his voice harmonizing perfectly with the music. Genji allowed a quiet, relaxed sigh to part his lips as he slowly closed his eyes. The sound of the DJ’s humming only seemed to amplify the melody of the music, the warm healing sensation brought on by the track warding away any and all soreness that may have wracked his body previously.

Soon, he felt none at all. His body felt… amazing.

Without warning, Genji suddenly sat up, immediately catching Lucio’s attention which caused him to jump and yelp in surprise. The DJ scrambled to catch his gear before it clattered to the floor, clutching it close to his chest as he looked up at the silhouette. After detecting Genji had fully woken up, the lights flickered on, making the shadow all that much more apparent. Lucio watched as Genji stretched his arms high above his head, giving a small groan in the process.

“... You good there?” He spoke up, a small laugh making its way into his words.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Genji spoke, turning his head to look at Lucio from beyond the curtain as he placed his hands beside him, “you seemed awfully surprised when I sat up.”

Lucio watched the motion of Genji’s jaw move as his spoke, a small detail that wouldn’t normally be noticed… but this was the first time he could catch himself paying attention to such a thing, now that the two of them were alone and - well - the ninja didn’t have his face coverings to hide it away.

“Uh-,” He stammered, eyes darting away for a second, “-how long you been up for?”

“Only a few minutes… your music woke me up.”

“O-Oh… sorry ‘bout that.”

“Don’t be,” Genji mused, “I enjoyed it, as well as your humming. I noticed that the music you have shown me thus far does not have many vocals, it was a nice change to hear you for once.”

Genji watched the other reach up and rub at the back of his head, nervous laughter pulling through him as Lucio seemed to turn his gaze to the floor. He couldn’t help but smile at the reaction.

“My music has always been more about the rhythm… it’s just how I operate, y’know?” The musician spoke with a sense of hesitation in his voice then turned his attention back up to the curtain in front of him, “I could uh… show you some demos that have some vocals in ‘em… I don’t really plan on releasin’ them to the public any time soon, though.”

“I would like that,” Genji responded, the smile in his voice sending goosebumps rushing across his skin.

Lucio’s fingers tapped to the rhythm of the healing music playing from his equipment, a burning sensation making its way up his neck and to the tips of his ears. He had gotten so engrossed in the track that he hadn’t even noticed he had been humming along to it until Genji mentioned it, it was just how music of any kind took hold of him. He always relinquished himself to the rhythm, it brought him a pure sensation of relaxation and joy to simply feel the music around him. The idea that the male currently hidden away from him was beginning to understand the same kind of feeling made a fluttering rise up in his chest.

He brought his gloved hand up to turn the music down a little bit, the yellow aura that occupied the room fading away with it. As the rhythmic tones that once spread throughout the room died down, the two of them went silent for a few minutes; it was by no means a strenuous or stressful quiet that one would normally do their best to avoid. On the contrary, the warmth in the room created a strange feeling of… well, Lucio couldn’t even begin to explain what he was feeling. Simply being in this room and sharing time with Genji just felt relaxing all on its own, no words needed to be shared for the time being.

The first thing to break the silence was the sound of rustling bed covers, causing Lucio to turn his attention up to the silhouette that outlined Genji’s frame. He watched the cyborg gather up the blankets Angela had placed over him after finishing with the procedure, pushing them off of his body before he swung his legs over the edge of the bed to place his feet on the floor. Genji reached up to pull the curtain back, causing Lucio to instantly tense up and avert his gaze.

“Heeey, buddy - you don’t got your face coverings on, I don’t have explicit permission to look, you sure you don’t want me to leave the room first or anything-”

His hand froze with its grip on the curtain at the statement, a slight tinge of confusion edging its way into his mind as he looked around for a moment for his headgear. He had barely realized it was off - he had very little trouble breathing ever since he woke up so he had assumed he already had it on to begin with. It wasn’t anywhere to be seen, perhaps it was in Angela’s office? However, that also begged the question…

Was Genji comfortable with revealing himself to Lucio yet?

While he had nothing to hide as far as his facial features went, he never knew how one might react to the rather extreme augmentations he’s had to endure over the years to simply live as a normal person. For him, it wasn’t just prosthetics; his entire body had endured many implants, facial reconstruction, and various additions to his body on top of his prosthetics that would otherwise make his outer appearance resemble nothing more than an omnic. It is something he has struggled with for many years, the idea of no longer appearing or being human. It took more than just a simple look in the mirror for him to realize that he was still human, regardless of what needed to be done to save his life.

So long as he was living, that’s what should matter to him. His past ideals of vengeance and being driven by rage have long since pushed away, he had come to terms with himself over several years of reminding himself that he was a part of both worlds now, but that didn’t change what he was originally. To find his center and inner peace again was no easy task, but he at the very least had a helping hand from his master.

The sound of the curtain being pulled back caused Lucio to flinch a little bit and he kept his gaze glued to the floor, unsure of whether it was okay for him to look up or not. Footsteps quietly moved closer to him before they were within his light of sight and before he had time to react, Genji had knelt down to look him in the face properly. The musician felt his heart skip a beat at that moment.

Slightly panicked dark brown eyes locked with calm hazel ones, a look of nothing but confidence within them. Lucio’s eyes traveled across Genji’s features, taking note of every scar, every divot, curve, turn, and every little piece of information his eyes could take in. The last thing to register in his mind was the relaxed smile that twisted across the cyborgs lips; Genji seemed so sure of himself and his decision in this instance, but Lucio couldn’t help but wonder if he deserved this sort of liberty. The idea of it all felt almost like he was being given something that others would never have the chance in a lifetime to witness.

“You have permission, Lucio. Don’t be so worried,” Genji spoke up finally, giving a gentle laugh as he pushed himself back up into standing position, Lucio’s eyes following him all the way, “you have given me nothing to worry about in your presence, so I hope I can do the same for you.”

“... Why you gotta act so cool all the time?”

Lucio blurted out before quickly covering his mouth, causing a surprised look from Genji. A second passed before a smile cracked over the warrior’s face as he attempted to stifle his laughter at the comment. Lucio couldn’t help but smile back as soon as the other started laughing, chuckling himself as the air around them changed once more. The DJ could only describe it as… something new beginning, a new wave of their friendship had just unlocked.

He wanted nothing more than to know what was just behind the door, awaiting himself and Genji.

“C’mon, let’s go find your stuff,” Lucio beamed as he stood up from the chair, “you hungry? I _was_ gonna make breakfast earlier but uhhh… clearly I got sidetracked.”

“As long as I am allowed to assist, I’m always happy to try whatever you cook.”

“Don’t strain yourself now, you just went through some intense stuff,” he smiled up at him.

“Nothing that your music did not heal,” Genji gestured to Lucio’s equipment, “I assume Angela gave you your new power source. It’s working very well.”

“Yeah! I can’t wait to try it out with everyone else!” Lucio turned his attention down to his pack and sonic amplifier, clearly excited about the upgrades given to him, “just thinkin’ about how much more I can help out the team… aw man, it’s gonna be awesome!”

“I believe that is part of why Angela wanted to get it out to you so soon.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, I thought you knew,” Genji’s head cocked off to the side slightly as they entered Angela’s office, “we are going to begin training this week.”

“Training?” Lucio squinted a little bit, unsure of what he meant by ‘training.’

“Hmm… perhaps _sparring_ is a better term to use.”

…

“Oh.”

So this was how he was going to get beaten up - not by a bad guy but by his own future teammates.

Great!


	7. Chapter 7

_Trsschht!_

The sound of velcro being adjusted and readjusted echoed throughout the room his team was given to wait in while Angela and Winston prepared some things. Today was the day, the day where he’d… apparently fight his allies in a sparring match; Lucio understood why they needed to do it and how it could be crucial to their future combat scenarios but it still felt odd to him to be fighting people he would be working with for who knows how long. It was most likely a test to see what they could do together in a combat scenario together, how well they could work together, what types of tactics they could think of.

But Lucio’s mind was drawing a complete blank all because the idea of hurting people who didn’t deserve it didn’t sit right with him.

Lucio let out a small, unnerved sigh as he ripped up the velcro to his glove once more only to replace it again, not too long repeating the process after. He knew the sound was probably getting on the other two’s nerves, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant sound to say the least after all - but it helped calm him down a little bit, just tugging at it over and over again, the resistance of it being pulled apart giving him something to focus on besides what was right in front of him.

“You alright, love?” He finally paused, tensing up a little bit as his attention snapped to Lena he knelt down in front of him with a small smile on her face, “it’s okay to be nervous, it ain’t every day you gotta fight your friends in a trainin’ exercise, yeah?”

“Wait,” Hana spoke up, pulling her head out of the cockpit of her mecha, “you don’t usually train against your teammates?”

“I wouldn’t really consider it an _option_ personally,” Lucio spoke up nervously, pulling their attention. “It’s just like… man, I don’t wanna stir up any bad blood between me and the people I’ll be workin’ with, y’know?”

“Lucio, you’re overthinking it…,” Hana closed the entry door of her mech before she made her away over to the other two, “we can’t always fight bad guys, so sparring against your teammates helps a lot to understand their fighting style so that way everyone can work more easily together! If you know your teammates weaknesses, that’ll just make it easier to protect them in a real fight, right?”

“Hana’s right, Lucio. Me and Genji used to spar all the time back when Overwatch was still up’n’running! He definitely had a lot less control back then, but it helped me understand what he did in a fight as well as helped me learn to combat more aggressive enemies,” Lena smiled up at him. “You got nothin’ to worry about. Chin up!”

“Yeah, when I was training to be a mecha pilot, they had us go head-to-head all the time. Yours truly only started getting consistent wins after the first couple weeks but it helped me out a ton,” Hana seated herself beside Lucio, offering him an encouraging smile, “the only ‘bad blood’ was the friendly rivalries we shared and even then it was only on the training grounds.”

As he listened to the two of them attempt to give him encouragement over the entire scenario, he couldn’t help but turn his attention back to the ground. His thumb idly fiddled with the edge of the velcro strap as he let their words sink in for a little while longer. He had to suppose they were both right, especially with how much experience they had with this sort of thing. Lucio never turned his weapon on someone he trusted so perhaps that was why this was all giving him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. His philosophy was always to use his arsenal against baddies and nobody else.

But that wasn’t optimal training, was it? The last time he faced anyone that could even remotely be considered baddies was making sure Vishkar and Talon goons stayed off his backside for long enough to escape unscatched; though, even then, that wasn’t a very consistent use of what he had at his disposal. Both of the women before him were known for their prowess in a fight, whether it be against rogue omnics, talon agents, or just bad guys all around. They were both wildly impressive in every sense of the word and for anyone to try and argue otherwise had to be out of their minds.

Lucio swallowed the slightly nervous lump that had begun to form in his throat before he closed his eyes and allowed his mind to settle for the moment. He was a healer, he should do whatever he can to enable the people around him rather than be a hindrance. The musician licked his lips and allowed his eyes to flutter open after a moment.

“You’re right, sorry for being so uptight about it all,” he gave them both a halfhearted smile, “maybe I’m just a little worried about hurtin’ someone.”

“Oh don’t worry… somethin’ tells me Reinhardt, Brigitte, and Genji will be anything but fragile.”

“Uh, _yeah!_ I checked in on them the other day and they have some amazing looking armor! I wanted to ask about it, but…,” Hana’s face went red, “I got nervous, hehe.”

“That armor was made by a dear friend of Reinhardts, I doubt he even leaves home without it nowadays, haha!” Lena smiled as she pushed herself up so that she was stood up straight, “and Brigitte is nothin’ short of a little version of him. This fights gonna be wicked!”

He couldn’t help but smile a little bit as the other two enthusiastically began going on about their opponents, clearly excited to go up against them. The more they talked about it, the more he himself felt like it could be a great opportunity, the nervousness that once plagued him finally washing away for the moment. Lucio wanted nothing more than to work with these people, help them in any way he could - issue there was, he knew nothing about them or how they operated.

Hana and Lena were right. If he wanted to know more, direct action needed to be taken!

The door to their waiting room hissed home and the sound of heels quietly stepped inside. The three of them looked up to spot Angela carrying a box that hid away its contents. Curious, Lucio stood up from the bench, rolling over to the medic to help her out a little bit.

“Hey Angela, everythin’ all ready?” Lucio smiled.

“Almost,” Angela hummed, allowing Lucio to take the box from her arms and set it down on the bench, “I need you each to put one of these on. As we will not be looking to physically harm one another quite yet and… hopefully we will not get to that point, Winston and I dug up these to use for today’s sparring.”

Lena looked over Lucio’s shoulder as he opened the box, revealing several disks that almost looked like the detectors on laser tag vests. Setting them on the bench one by one, Lucio found what seemed to be a controller for each of them which Angela quickly came over to take from his hands. The Brit who’d been eyeing the items suddenly snapped her fingers with a look of realization on her face.

“Oh, I remember these!” Lena quickly grabbed one of the disks, pressing it in to make it light up; as it did, it displayed a number on the front that read 200/200, “they’re health markers! We used to use ‘em all the time until… huh… why _did_ we stop usin’ these?”

“Gabriel used to insist they made training too complicated…,” Angela sighed as she adjusted her glasses, “he said that hitting the disks without injuring someone was too difficult for him because he-”

“-Used shotguns,” Lena interjected as she rolled her eyes.

“Yes, exactly,” she gave a small laugh, “however, we will not be exclusively relying on our firearms today.”

Angela looked down at the controller in her hands, turning it on before tapping away at a few settings. The health marker blinked a couple of times before the number displayed suddenly shot down to 50/50.

“Huh?” Lena looked up from the health marker.

“You see, we’ll be more focused on incapacitating for the moment. The goal will be to find some way to stop your opponent in their tracks and melee the marker rather than shoot it; this should not be incredibly difficult for you, Lena,” Angela smiled warmly, “Lucio and Hana however may have slightly more trouble in that department.”

“Oooh, now that you mention it, you’re right. Reinhardt will be a sittin’ duck for me if anythin’, but Brigitte and Genji might target Hana and Lucio during that time.”

“Wait, why me?” Lucio spoke up, clearly confused as to exactly why he’d be a target to focus.

“Because you’re a healer,” Angela frowned a little bit, “when the enemy knows there is a healer, focusing them and getting them out of the way is the most optimal play. If the healer is distracted with trying to avoid being cornered, that will also keep them from doing their job thus not being able to aid their team.”

She explained, causing Lucio to draw a blank. He… he really hadn’t even begun to think that far. Having never actually fought with a team, this sort of situation was never an issue for him. His arsenal always allowed him to keep himself and any bystanders in check rather than keep an entire team fighting _with_ him in check. He had to guess that Angela had her fair share of being focused by her enemies, so it ended up being something she was painfully aware of.

There was a lot to think about here, wasn’t there?

“But that’s why I’ll be there to peel for my healer!” Hana smiled as she placed her hands on her hips, “if anybody gets on him, that means I get them off of him and onto me, right? If they’re distracted with me then they can’t go after him, which means he can do his job and Lena can do her job!”

“Correct, Hana. However you must keep in mind regardless of how much you think you can do,” Angela paused as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, “you _must_ work together.”

“Understood!” Lena exclaimed as she suddenly slapped one of the disks onto Lucio’s back, pulling a yelp from him, “let’s do this! It’ll be a blast!”

“Yeah… yeah! We got this, let us at ‘em!” Lucio suddenly felt a spike of energy just from Lena’s excitement as he grabbed a couple of the disks to hand to his teammates.

“All right, Lucio! That’s the spirit!” Hana beamed as she quickly grabbed one of the disks to put on the back of her mech.

Angela smiled a little bit at this enthusiasm before she tapped away at the controller in her hands to set up the rest of the health markers. While, yes, she was worried that any sort of loss may discourage their new recruits, this was incredibly necessary for all of them. She had no idea how rusty the older agents may be or how aggressive the new ones would be. It was a learning experience for all of them and allowed her to collect data on everyone to see what might need to be worked on in the future.

To ignore something as crucial at this would be foolish of her and Winston, if they let these agents go into battle with no knowledge of their prowess or expertise, how would they ever forgive themselves if something were to go wrong? Angela… didn’t want to think about anything going wrong. Preventive measures had to be taken. She couldn’t risk losing anyone else on her watch.

It didn’t take too long for both of the teams to be set up with their health markers equipped, set to the correct numbers, and allowed out into the training ground. A relatively large room surrounded by mostly concrete with some obstacles for cover here and there surrounded the teams while Winston and Angela sat comfortably in a viewing box high above them all. From behind the glass, they could be seen discussing something between each other before eventually coming to some sort of agreement or conclusion.

Lucio cocked his head slightly as he peered over at the other three on the opposite side of the room, watching Brigette and Reinhardt discuss something he couldn’t hear while Genji stood by and watched them with his arms crossed over his chest. He couldn’t tell if the cyborg was involved in whatever they were talking about, considering his face was hidden from everyone in the room. He watched Genji closely, eyes practically glued to him as he observed his every movement from the small tilt of his head to the way he shifted his weight.

That is… until he was caught staring.

Genji looked over at Lucio, locking eyes with him and causing the DJ to freeze up a little bit as the grip on his sonic amplifier tightened a little bit. Then Genji waved at him, allowing him to relax as a smile crept over his face and he waved back though flinched as the sound of the intercom crackling on filled the room.

“Ah yes, now it’s working. Sorry about that everyone,” Winston’s voice echoed throughout the room, pulling all of their attention up to the viewing box, “as mentioned before, this exercise will be more focused around incapacitating your target. Stunning, pinning, tripping, knocking them down by any means and draining the health on their markers with a hit. If you can outsmart your opponent and catch them off guard, that works just as well too… looking at our flankers down there, by the way.”

Both Lena and Genji seemed to perk up, the Brit smiling up at Winston as Genji simply rubbed at the back of his headgear.

“The timer starts…,” Winston fiddled around with a few buttons and the time they had was suddenly displayed in a holographic form beneath the viewer box, “now!”

“Hah!”

Without even a second of hesitation, the sound of Reinhardt grunting out as he charged forward toward them seemingly propelled by nothing at a surprising amount of speed caught the three of them by surprise. Not too far behind them followed Brigitte while Genji dashed toward them, a hand on one of his blades while the other held three shuriken between his fingers. Lucio glanced up at Hana, who gripped tightly at the controls of her mech and to Lena who eagerly whipped out her pistols to prepare for the fight.

Looks like there was no backing out now.

Raising his hand to the air, the sound of his music pushed the three of them forward, speeding them toward their opponents before Lena broke off with a quick blink, her sights set on Brigitte while Hana and Lucio went toe-to-toe with Genji and Reinhardt. As Lena caught up to Brigitte, she fired her pistols at her feet to catch her attention, forcing a confused noise out of her as she noticed the Brit there with a cheeky grin on her face.

“Lena! Reinhardt told me you’d go for me,” Brigitte grinned back at her, bringing up her shield to protect her face.

“Did he now? It’s flatterin’ to know the old man still knows how I fight!” She laughed a little bit at the comment before she blinked around to go for the disk on the squires back, who quickly flipped around with her shield to face her in an instant.

“No way!” With a sharp grunt, Brigitte dashed toward the woman with the intent of bashing her shield right into her. The hope of feeling something behind her shield quickly dissipated when she heard the sound of her blinking away, “come on, Lena. You’re too fast, how is this fair?”

“What’s wrong, love? Can’t keep up?”

“I’m more worried about what it’s gonna do to your pride when I do catch you!”

“Guess we’ll find out _if_ ya catch me!”

As Lena teased the shieldmaiden to keep her out of the fight, Lucio was doing his best to keep Reinhardt as far away from Hana’s backside as he could; that shield he had was like a wall he couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around getting past. It was like he was nothing short of a tightly rooted rock when it was up and really, it just gave Genji all the time in the world to play and attempt to get at Hana’s health marker.

Luckily for both of them, Hana was quick to shut Genji down with her defense matrix whenever he attempted to get anywhere close to her. Even with the cyborg attempting to play distraction long enough for Reinhardt to charge her, she was able to use her boosters to get out of harm's way without breaking a sweat. With Lucio speeding her away and keeping her as slippery as possible despite her mechs size, it did worlds for both of them - however, the realization of them not being able to get their goal accomplished dawned on them more and more as they just kept playing defensively.

“Lucio, I need you to go for Reinhardt!” Hana instructed as the two of them backed out of the fight for a moment to breathe, “you can slip behind him and get his marker, right? He won’t be fast enough to react!”

“You sure about that one? Won’t Genji just-”

“Lucio,” Hana looked over at him with a smile on her face, “I’ll keep him off of you so you can do your job, okay?”

Lucio blinked a couple times, recalling that she had mentioned keeping the heat off of him earlier as well. Was she really dedicated to that? It seemed like she would be the type to want that sort of limelight on her, to be the one doing all the work and creating something worthwhile to look at. Perhaps that was just what he got from her by watching her stream, but something about her was vastly different between that and who she actually was.

He had to wonder to himself, despite watching her so often and being so incredibly invested in her streams, if he really knew that much about her as a person? Clearly not, considering he just outright assumed she wouldn’t keep to her word and be the peel he needed, especially in this sort of situation. Lucio, to say the least, was grateful that he was getting the opportunity to work with someone so committed.

“Got it!”

With nothing else to be said, Lucio quickly sped himself off, using the various obstacles and walls for an extra burst of speed on his way over to Reinhardt. He quickly rounded the corner of one of the walls, using it as cover for the moment, his shoulder pressing flush against the cool concrete as he looked beyond it to see what was going on. From the looks of it, it seemed that Genji had left Reinhardts side to go after Hana.

To say Reinhardt was on guard was a complete understatement.

The bright blue holo-shield was displayed proudly, that large flame powered hammer stuck closely by his side as his stance held little to no flaws. He couldn’t see the older man’s face, but he could practically feel the intensely serious expression held from beneath his helmet. Reinhardt looked like nothing short of a futuristic knight, ready to protect his king from any danger whether it be an all-out siege or simply a handful of angry commoners. It was actually kind of intimidating, now that Lucio thought about it. How was he meant to break this fortress in front of him?

Well… there was **one** thing he recalled from earlier in the week that seemed to get on Reinhardt’s nerves at least a little bit.

Finally, Lucio poked his head up from behind the cover, pulling Reinhardt’s attention, who gave an almost thrilled laugh to see the DJ.

“Haha! So you finally come to face me, Lucio!” The crusader spoke with an elated tone, “come, if you think you can fight me!”

“Yeah, actually… there was somethin’ I wanted to ask you,” Lucio started as he kicked up onto the half-wall, climbing up onto it until he was seated on the thin edge, “why exactly _Hasselhoff?_ ”

The sound of Reinhardt’s boisterous confusion almost distracted Hana and Genji from their own bout, the girl nearly letting a shuriken slip through her defense matrix. What was Lucio doing over there that was making Reinhardt go off like that? Whatever he was doing, it was definitely something. Who was she to argue with someone else’s tactics anyway? It wasn’t like she didn’t have her own after all.

“Hana, you should be paying more attention,” Genji stated simply as he suddenly flipped over her with the intention of slashing at her health marker though before he could even come close her mecha instantly turned around.

Hana hit her boosters, pushing forward to ram herself into the cyborg in an attempt to get him on the ground so she could do the same, much to little success as Genji simply dashed away from her. She gave a disgruntled sound as she turned around to face him once more, a slight pout on her face.

“I’m paying more attention than you think, you should be able to tell by now,” she huffed, “otherwise you would have gotten me!”

“I suppose you’re right, but if I keep you talking will it keep you quite as focused?”

With a quick dash, Genji found himself behind Hana once more. This time, he was inches away from meleeing her disk before she quickly boosted upwards, forcing him to flip back onto his feet once more. He kept low to the ground for the moment as she landed once more, the heavy thumping of her mecha landing once more seeming like it would shake the entire arena.

“As if I can’t talk and fight a silly Super Sentai at the same time,” Hana stuck her tongue out at Genji who could only offer a confused look.

“Super... Sentai?”

… Wait, did he really look like one of those?

“You totally look exactly like one, just imagine if we painted your armor like pink or something,” Hana laughed a little bit at the thought, “though I guess you’d be more like the Green Sentai, huh?”

“As much as I would like to humor this conversation,” Genji dashed forward once more while Hana was distracted with giggling about the whole idea, flipping over her mecha without faltering for even a second and quickly brought a swift blow to the disk with his elbow. He landed on his feet, one hand pressed firmly against the ground as the health marker beeped a couple times before shutting off, “we’ll have to do it another time.”

“Huh-?” Hana’s eyes went wide as she immediately realized she’d been tricked so quickly, “-no fair! Ugh, I’m definitely gonna have to get back at you the next time we do this-”

As she turned herself around and noticed the cheesy pose he was in, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing, her previous frustration easily washed away by her suspicions of _Super Sentai_ being entirely correct. The realization of why she was laughing suddenly dawned on him and he quickly scrambled to his feet where his mind raced to figure out a way to shush her before he simply gave up.

“... Hana, please,” Genji offered a quick bow as he started to step away, “I believe there are other things I must attend to.”

With that said, Genji quickly made his leave to complete the assignment given to him by Winston and Angela.

“Lena, can you please just hold still for a few seconds?” Brigitte huffed, dropping her shield down to her side, “I’m getting kind of dizzy here…”

“Sorry, no can do!” Lena giggled as she spun her pistols effortlessly in her hands.

She did feel a little bit bad for making Brigitte work so hard for just little ol’ her, but it was part of the game. As long as she kept her out of the way, everything was just peachy. Though the sound of Hana’s health marker shutting down did create a bit of worry in her; it was two against three now and their odds didn’t seem very favorable at the moment. Lena glanced over to where Lucio and Reinhardt were situated and…

“I’ll be right with ya Brigitte, I just need to do somethin’ real quick!”

With that said, Lena blinked away from the shieldmaiden, causing her to give a confused noise and take chase. She had no idea what Lena was up to, but she didn’t like it one bit!

“There is nothing wrong with the classics! Techno music is just the same thing over and over, again!”

“I mean, those were kinda the same thing over and over, too. Why not appreciate both?”

“Lucio, you must understand, the classics created everything you know! Where would you be without Bowie, Hasselhoff, McCartney, even Starship?!”

“Oh man…,” the DJ couldn’t help but press his face into his hands.

How could someone be so incredibly far behind as Reinhardt was?

They had been at this for several minutes now, Lucio had figured out just the right nerve to hit to get Reinhardt to take his guard down, even if it was causing him some serious distress to know the type of artists and music he thought was still ‘cool’ and ‘hip.’ He _had_ been planning on using this opportunity to make his way behind Reinhardt and give a good punch to his disk but then his eyes caught Lena’s orange suit heading right there. Before he had time to react, she blunk forward and gave it a quick tap with her gun.

Lucio, to say the least, snorted a little bit and quickly covered his mouth when Reinhardt’s speech about classic music being far superior to anything the future could hold suddenly came to a halt as the sound of his health marker flatlined and shut off. He slowly turned around, taking note of the small Brit behind him before he let out a laugh.

“Well, you may have gotten me, but what are you going to do for yourself, Lena?”

“I’m perfectly fine Rein-”

“No you’re not.”

The sound of Brigitte’s shield bashing right into Lena caused Lucio to jump in surprise as he watched Lena stumble dizzily from the sudden impact. Before she could begin to react, Brigitte flung the chain of her rocket powered mace so it wrapped around the Brits body. With a tap on her health marker, Lena was seamlessly taken out of the competition. Lucio quickly hopped off the wall to make a quick disappearance before he ended up the same way.

Lena came to after a couple moments, shaking her head to get her senses back to her before she noticed the chain wrapped tightly around her body. Her shoulders sunk a little bit before she looked up at Brigitte.

“Aw, rubbish. You got me.”

“Yeah, and it only took you being sillier than usual for me to do it! Woohoo!” Brigitte cheered for herself as Reinhardt gave a proud laugh, “now where’s the last one? I’m ready to show him-”

“Boop!”

Lucio chimed as he pressed his fist against Brigitte’s disk, causing her to freeze up and quickly snap around to look down at him as he was knelt down close to the ground. She groaned to herself, realizing she fell for the same thing that Lena _and_ Reinhardt had. Looked like that was something they both needed to work on instead of trying to let it get to their heads prematurely.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Lucio offered a small smile, “needed to get revenge, y’know?”

“No, no. You got that fair and square, great job.”

Brigitte smiled back at Lucio before sighing and motioning for herself, Lena, and Reinhardt to clear off the field. Now all that left was… himself and Genji. Lucio straightened himself out, gripping his sonic amplifier a little tighter as he looked around the arena. It was surprisingly quiet, or at the very least way quieter than it was before. It was almost as if Genji were doing everything he could to conceal his location from him. Though should he have been surprised? Genji, from what he knew, was a warrior who focused almost solely on the ninja arts. The idea of him _not_ being sneaky and quick on his feet was something to worry way more about.

Guiding his hand through the air, he moved to turn his music way down low, listening closely to the surrounding area as he waited for Genji to make his move or even slip up. Lucio waited… and waited… and waited even more, but it seemed as though the ninja wasn’t about to give up his location any time soon; that is, until he heard the soft, quick pitter patter of footsteps not too far from himself. Without missing a beat, Lucio quickly sped himself away from where he’d been standing and quickly whipped around to see the aforementioned ninja in hot pursuit. The chill that rushed through his body at the realization of how smart and fast Genji worked was something he’d never felt before.

He couldn’t help but end up finding the way he operated incredibly cool yet again.

Lucio quickly shook himself out of his thoughts before he hopped up onto a wall adjacent from himself, giving him an extra boost of speed to create more distance from himself and Genji. But as he looked up after stabilizing himself on the surface, the other seemed to have entirely disappeared. Swallowing nervously, Lucio looked around at the surrounding area as he began nearing the edge of the wall before he opted to hop off onto a nearby column, climbing up the otherwise impossibly shallow surface until he reached the top.

Centering his balance to make sure he didn’t slide right off the narrow platform, he used the new vantage point to look around for any hint of the cyborg in question.

“You know, Genji… it’ll be waaay easier on us both if we didn’t play hide and seek like this,” Lucio turned around on the platform as he looked down to the floor of the arena, “we both know these skates don’t make me nearly as quiet as you just… ya know, _are_.”

“I prefer to think of this as more of a game of cat and mouse, myself,” Genji spoke, forcing Lucio to turn to the direction of his voice to find him perched on his own column, “or… well, _dragon and frog_ might be more accurate, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Do dragons chase frogs that much?” The musician crossed his arms, a small grin finding its way over his face.

“This one does.”

Lucio couldn’t help but tense up a little bit at that abrupt statement, the feeling of warmth crawling and creeping up the sides of his neck, threatening to reach his face. Before he could even begin to open his mouth to retort, Genji allowed him no time as he suddenly dashed forward toward the younger man. A sharp gasp pulled through him as his mind drew a blank at what to do - he put himself in an extremely unsafe position, no real escape routes for himself other than just jumping down. But then what? Just keep running? That didn’t seem like a very smart idea, especially if this were to be taken as even a semblance of a real scenario (though, even with that, he wouldn’t be able to trick the enemy into going off about oldies) Lucio couldn’t just keep running without being pursued.

He needed to think fast before Genji caught up to him.

The cyborg immediately recognized the look of confusion and indecisiveness on Lucio’s face. He understood very well that the other had never been in situations where he actually needed to turn around and fight, usually running away after sabotaging the plans and ideals of his enemies. He led his people to freedom, but he didn’t lead them into an all out fight; they were all just normal people and he was sure Lucio knew that during the time however his inexperience when it came to a real battle was all too apparent. It would be something he would need to help him work on in the future it seemed.

Resolving that for now it would be better to end this rather than dragging it on any longer, Genji pushed himself up into the air seeming to touch an invisible platform as he did so and catapulted himself with another dash toward the musician. Just as he came close with the idea of maneuvering his body around to situate himself behind Lucio to give his health marker a light tap, he was suddenly pushed back as a wave of sound jettisoned him backwards. In a slight moment of panic, he grabbed at the air, attempting to find some sort of purchase before he hit the ground below him.

That… didn’t actually work out like he wanted it to.

At all.


	8. Chapter 8

The sound of him colliding with the concrete below as well as him letting out a pained grunt from the impact forced Lucio to peak over the edge of his perch with a worried look on his face. Genji blinked a couple of times, pulling himself out of the slight stupor as he looked up at Lucio with a rather surprised look on his face from behind his mask. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, that caught him entirely off-guard. While the initial blow didn’t hurt per say, it was still jarring to have that sort of feeling hit your entire body; a wave of nothing but pure sound rattling not only your ear drums but every bone or lack there of inside of one's body wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling to say the least.

“You alright down there…?” Lucio called out meekly as knelt down a little bit and waved down to Genji.

“... Fine, just… did not expect that,” Genji managed to wheeze out as he shook off the previous sensation that shook his partially cybernetic body, “I suppose we’re getting much more serious now?”

“I mean… if you wanna take it that way, I’ll dance a little,” Lucio quipped back, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, “sorry if you can’t keep up, though.”

“You say that quite often, perhaps you’re just worried I’ll be able to catch up faster than you’d like?”

“Debatable, but I guess we can find out.”

Amused by Lucio’s response, Genji rolled his shoulders to prepare himself once more to go toe-to-toe with the other man. Without another word, the ninja leapt up the column, climbing it as though gravity were a non-issue to the capabilities of his body watching as Lucio disappeared from the edge of the top, the sound of him leaping away as he skates shredded against the wall of the arena. If this was the musicians game, it wasn’t a very sound one. Keeping him away would only work in his favor for so long, after all.

Genji quickly dashed forward in an effort to keep up with Lucio until he was neck and neck just below the man attached to the wall. He looked up at the musician who locked eyes with him, the feeling of a smile making its way over his face beneath his mask catching him slightly by surprise. This was almost… fun, to say the least. The last time he had sparred in such a fashion, he was incredibly frustrated and angry with not only his opponent but himself for not being able to end the fight as quickly as possible. That, in retrospect, was a very long time ago in an era where he had much less control over his emotions.

He watched as Lucio quickly hopped off of the wall, the streak of light that followed his skates bouncing from pillar to wall to yet another wall in a last ditch effort to lose him, ramping up a staggering amount of speed as he practically ricocheted off the walls. To say it was impressive would be a complete understatement, however even despite Lucio’s fast paced escape Genji quickly joined him without even a second of faltering much to Lucio’s surprise.

Lucio understood very well that he could only keep this up for so long before Genji would ultimately catch onto him - at this point, he was just trying to run out the time on the clock. He kept going back to his default of _just don’t let them catch you_ but… that plan was starting to become less and less viable as time went on. Genji was fast, he knew this all too well and he definitely wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun him for the rest of the duration that the clock had. But at this point, he didn’t even know how long they had… and whether the information they provided for Angela and Winston would suffice if he kept this up.

He needed to face him head on.

Once he reached the other side of the training grounds, he quickly stuck himself to the wall, keeping to what was relatively the same spot.

“Okay, if you wanna _fight_ fight, I’ll try my hand at it!” Lucio called out, his voice echoing throughout the arena, causing Genji to stop in his tracks, “but if you beat me too badly, you ain’t gonna hear the end of it!”

“Don’t worry, I will help you recover if it comes to that,” Genji spoke, the amusement in his voice sending chills up Lucio’s spine, “come on!”

Without hesitation, Lucio raised his hand up to the ceiling speeding himself instantly off of the wall at a rapid pace as he carefully watched Genji. When the cyborg didn’t move at first, he expected some sort of trick or fake out from the other, perhaps for him to go out of his way to get behind Lucio and attack him at the point that mattered the most. However he watched Genji’s hand guide itself up to the sword carried on his back, tugging once to pop it from its sheath.

_“Ryujin no ken wo kurae!”_

The ninja cried out, his voice resounding throughout Lucio’s entire being as his eyes focused solely on the other. He watched as he smoothly pulled the sword from its sheath, the blade expertly twisting and rolling in his hands for a fraction of a second as - strangely enough - the figure of a dragon rolling with it seemed to take shape with it. In a split second, Genji had dashed forward, the aura emanating from him striking a tinge of fear within Lucio’s chest as his eyes went from the blade to Genji’s hidden face. Regardless of any fright he felt, he outstretched the hand that held his sonic amplifier, fully prepared to fire off whatever he needed to come out victorious in this mock battle.

Genji was by no means setting out to bring harm to Lucio, however using his Shimada birthright would certainly aid him in bringing a halt to the DJ’s all too fast paced antics and allow him to claim victory over him. His hands wrapped tightly around the grip of his katana, staring down the man who was flying recklessly toward him as the dragon’s spirit within him burned brightly. The warping mixture of emotions he felt in this one fight settling along with his blood gave him a strange rush, one that he couldn’t quite begin to place.

He could only chalk it up to Lucio’s influence on him… the musician never ceased to bring him new wonders it seemed.

But just before the two of them could even have the chance to play out their fight, the abrupt darkness that enveloped them caught them both by complete surprise. The sound of Lucio crying out at the sudden disappearance of light forced Genji to quickly drop his sword out of fear of accidentally harming the other before the feeling of a body crashing into his own sent him back to the ground in a matter of seconds. The sound of the sword clattering to the ground soon after hit their ears.

What the hell was going on now?

The abrupt outage hadn’t given Genji time whatsoever for the night vision on his visor to kick in and as it finally did he couldn’t help but give a small sigh of relief. He started to push up, however the weight on top of him forced him to stop. It didn’t take long for Lucio himself to sit up, rubbing at his wrist a little bit. He had tried to brace his fall and not crush Genji under his weight, but in doing so appears to have left him with a, hopefully minor, injury. He hissed a little bit as he held his wrist in his other hand before he looked around a little bit, only the glow of his skates partially illuminating the area around them.

Yeah, it was pitch freaking black in here. There was no way he could even begin to comprehend anything outside of an inch in front of his face - speaking of things an inch in front of his face… was he…? Lucio reached out with his uninjured hand, touching at whatever might’ve been in front of him before the one he’d apparently been seated on top of suddenly lit up a vivid green.

“Crap-!” Lucio yelped out and quickly removed himself from the other, “you okay?! I didn’t hurt you or anything right-?”

“I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about,” Genji interjected, a small laugh in his voice as he reached out to pat Lucio’s shoulder before he took notice of him clutching his wrist, “if anyone is injured here, it appears to be you.”

“Uh…,” the dull pain that throbbed through his wrist suddenly caught his attention once more, “it’s probably just a sprain… no big deal.”

“That is still an injury.”

“It’ll heal... if it were broken, I’d probably be screechin’ like a dang banshee right now or somethin’,” Lucio attempted to brush it off as quickly as possible though he felt a pair of robotic hands take a hold of his injured wrist and pull it close. He felt Genji’s thumb press against it in a way that caused him to flinch and hiss out in pain, “aaah, okay okay, point taken!”

Genji offered an amused hum as he took the pressure off of Lucio’s wrist and began to stand up. He took the musicians uninjured hand, helping him onto his feet carefully as he watched his all-too concerned face. The way he looked out into the darkness in hopes of finding something he could actually see on his own was rather adorable, he had to admit, a small chuckle escaping him as he placed a hand on Lucio’s shoulder.

“The generators must have shut down, again. It occurs periodically, but it seems to happen most when everyone is asleep. Angela had said it’s happened several times while we were visiting Lauterbrunnen,” Genji explained, watching Lucio’s expression turn to confusion.

“Guess it’s just dumb luck that it happened just now, huh?”

“Very dumb luck,” Genji sighed quietly before he took a moment to look around the room.

He was unsure of how long these outages went on for. Genji himself never really minded any lack of power around himself, having lived in Nepal with his master for so long had given him an opportunity to learn to live without the more recent technological innovations of the current century; however, that didn’t mean he particularly enjoyed the darkness or using his night vision in this sorts of situations.

Genji listened as Lucio’s skates dragged across the floor before the sound of his katana being tapped caught his attention. He watched Lucio kneel down to pick it up carefully, not exactly holding it like it should be held, but at the very least it wasn’t in a way that would possibly injure him. He couldn’t help but give a small laugh at the scene, even as the other rolled back over to him and handed the blade to him in a way that one would hand a pair of scissors to another person.

“Sorry, again… hope it’s not busted or anything,” he stammered out, fingers of his uninjured hand sliding over the grip of the sword, feeling every groove and bump beneath them, “didn’t really expect you to whip out your sword at me, kinda scared me at first, haha!”

“I assure you this steel is strong enough to withstand even more than a fall,” Genji spoke in a low, warm tone as he took the sword and smoothly returned it to it’s sheath, “I had no intentions of harming you, I simply felt it would offer me a tactical advantage.”

“You mean-”

“Yes… so I could keep up.”

Lucio quickly brought his hand up to his mouth to stifle a laugh, the smile that spread across his face bringing a warmth to Genji that filled his chest and made him smile himself.

After a moment when the lights didn’t return, Genji opted to simply lead Lucio to the exit of the training grounds until the power did return to them. He reached out without saying a word, hand gently intertwining itself with Lucio’s as he began heading for the door. It seemed to take the musician by surprise, the movement making him stumble in his skates for a moment before he seemed to understand then just gently grip back and follow closely behind. It wasn’t as if they were in any danger by any means, but only one of them could properly see in the dark and he really didn’t want to hear the other smacking into every obstacle they passed.

Lucio, on the other hand, could absolutely handle most of the things Genji was worried would come to fruition - however, hand holding with the cyborg was not something he had fully anticipated doing today. It felt strangely intimate for him, especially since… nah, he didn’t really want to go _that_ far yet. He didn’t need to go that far yet. It was ridiculous for him to think about it that way, even if he felt his heart racing, face heating up to the temperature of the sun, mind spinning and swirling to the point where he felt like he might just pass out if he weren’t careful.

He didn’t want to leap headfirst into that territory, that would be way too much for himself all at once.

But the feeling of knowing he was trusted enough by the ninja with so many things - being trusted to heal for him, seeing his face, holding his hand, being able to go head to head with him in a mock fight - just felt so incredibly personal. It felt like he might’ve held some favor from Genji at the very least. Honestly, just the thought of thought made him feel as though he was soaring in a way.

However, the feeling of Genji’s hand slipping out of his own as they came to a stop at where the door for the arena would be brought him down a little bit. While it was short, the entire moment felt like something new was rising up inside of him. Could he elaborate that to Genji?

Hell no, are you crazy? That would probably make things stupidly awkward between the two of them.

“The door won’t open without the generators up and running,” Genji’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, “Winston and Angela should be just about done fixing them, though.”

He spoke as he tapped on the automatic door a couple of times before he turned back to Lucio, who appeared to be in a moment of fluster still. Genji’s head cocked off to the side as he approached him, reaching out to take his injured wrist in his hand once more.

“Does it hurt still?”

“Huh-? Oh, not really… just kinda like a weird, dull throbbin’. Nothin’ too bad.”

Lucio forced a smile onto his face in an attempt to reassure him without even being positive Genji could see it. Hearing Genji give a low hum piqued his curiosity, especially when he felt his hands move away from his wrist. The sound of rustling played against his ears, as well as the sound of a blade being unsheathed. The musician tensed up a little bit before the sound of fabric being cut echoed throughout the room. His wrist was taken once more and something being wrapped securely around it pressured around his limb.

“There,” Genji mused, a satisfied tone resonating in his voice.

“You know I can just heal it right up, right?”

“We don’t know how serious the damage is yet, it's safer to assess first and heal later for the moment.”

“... Can’t argue with that.”

“I’m sure Angela will teach you the basics of being a combat medic eventually, she has always insisted that not every wound can be healed on the battlefield,” Genji pulled Lucio over to the door a little bit as he propped himself up against the wall, “keeping your team up is more important that mending everything.”

Lucio situated himself beside Genji, looking down at his skates, eyes scanning over the low glow they gave off around the two of them. He took a moment to think about that statement, how it was more important to keep your team up than mending everything on the spot. It was true at the very least, attempting to heal instantly will just create more problems in the future. If something more serious isn’t properly set or stitched up in a way that’ll allow the body to naturally heal, it would just make living all that much more difficult.

The image of the scars on that decorated Genji’s face when he first witnessed his face flashed through his mind for a split second, the smallest idea of… maybe he pushed himself too hard and insisted on too much at one point or another. As much as he wanted to ask, now wasn’t the right time and he knew it.

Lucio reached over to touch at whatever Genji had wrapped around his wrist, the silky texture of the cloth beneath his fingertips soothing his senses. It took him a couple of moments before it clicked on exactly what it was.

“... Isn’t this the headband you wear?”

“You could tell that easily?”

“Well, you ain’t exactly wearing clothes,” Lucio laughed a little bit.

“They get in the way of combat, even worse when they end up tattered,” Genji looked over at Lucio, “considering I’m not exactly _unclothed_ it should not make much of a difference.”

“Okay, fair - but how am I supposed to know when you’re naked and when you’re not?”

“Don’t be so curious, dos Santos.”

Lucio couldn’t help but laugh even more, especially at the amusement that laced Genji’s tone. The ninja chuckled himself before letting out a short sigh and leaning his head against the wall behind them.

“I only cut it in half, so it’s not much of a worry for me,” Genji paused, “as long as I am able to help you, that is what matters.”

“I…,” Lucio hesitated for a moment, smiling warmly up at him, “I appreciate it, a lot. Thanks, Genji… I’ll keep it in mind for later.”

“What do you mean by-?”

The lights flickered on once more, catching Genji by surprise as he looked up at the ceiling and pushed off of the wall. The door beside them hissed open to reveal Lena and Reinhardt from behind it.

“Oh, thank God they got the generators up and runnin’, again! Reinhardt was about to try bustin’ the door down,” Tracer blinked over to the two of them, “are you two all right? The lights cut at a pretty heated moment it looked like.”

“Yes, the two of you were practically at each other’s throats! I must know, which one of you came out victorious, hmm?” Reinhardt stepped inside of the arena, giving the two of them an expectant look.

Lucio opened his mouth to speak before simply drawing a blank and looking over at Genji, who hesitated for a moment before realizing-

“... I believe I lost,” Genji admitted as he turned to try and look at the health marker on his back.

Sure enough, the disk was turned off while Lucio’s still proudly showed the 50/50.

“Does that count-? That doesn’t count, right? He fell on his back, I didn’t hit it-”

“You incompacitated him! Brilliant Lucio, well done!” Lena cheered out, quickly hopping over to pull him into a tight hug, “and here I was sure Genji was gonna outsmart you in some way or another!”

“Genji, my friend, have you gone soft? I’m a little disappointed! Haha!”

Genji was quiet for a moment, still trying to process his loss properly before he just smiled from behind his mask. While it wasn’t technically a fair win, he had to admit, Lucio put up an amazing fight. He watched on and Lena and Reinhardt cheered the musician on, crossing his arms over his chest before he let out a small sigh.

“Lucio…,” he spoke up, catching their attention, “you are going to spar with me again in the very near future, correct? I believe our next fight will have a much different outcome.”

The DJ gave a very curious look, eyes wide as his head tilted slightly. It didn’t seem like Genji was upset with him, in fact, the tone of his voice told him that he was very amused by it all. He couldn’t begin to stop the smile that broke out over his face as he shimmied himself out of Lena’s embrace to roll over to Genji. He reached out and lightly tapped him on the shoulder with a broad smile overtaking his face.

“Sure thing, I’ll make sure to go easier on you next time,” he teased, sticking his tongue out at him, pulling a laugh out of him.

“Then you won’t hold it against me if I go harder.”

Lucio paused, staring Genji in the visor as his smile faltered for the briefest moment. Why was it such a strangely exciting feeling to be put on the same level as someone like Genji? He couldn’t explain it, but… for some reason he quite enjoyed the idea of it all. Lucio himself was by no means fragile, he’d proven that time and time, again. He was willing to put himself in the line of danger against the biggest, strongest bad guys. None of them had anything on the warrior in front of him, though.

“Go as hard as you like.”

He wanted to see Genji pull out all the stops.


	9. Chapter 9

Lucio was… pretty beat after the week he had, to say the least.

The past few days had been dedicated solely to teamwork training, combat medic training, search and rescue protocol, reconnaissance, stealth exercises, and even more sparring sessions. He hadn’t exactly been _good_ at every single one of these, if he were being totally honest with himself but at the very least it was a learning experience that he was happy to be a part of. The day prior, they’d all been given time off from the exercises and Lucio… slept like a baby, to say the very least. By the time he had woken up at all, it was far past noon and the sun was already hanging low in the sky; the realization that he had wasted the day away in bed bothered him but he knew his body needed the rest.

After the day of the power outage, Angela repaired his wrist, confirming his suspicions of it merely being a slight sprain and sent him to his room for the remainder of the day while the rest of the team went on with other things. He was grateful, but he felt as though he could have done more regardless of the minor injury, but even everyone else wouldn’t hear a word of it. It made him work all that much harder in the coming days which he had started to regret by the very last day - he was sore, tired, bruised, and downright exhausted. He should have expected the hours of sleep his body claimed afterwards.

In the morning however, he woke up feeling fresh as a spring daisy, his body all too grateful for the much needed rest. Lucio hopped in and out of the shower before dressing himself for the day, choosing to leave his hair down after having it up practically all week long, and dressing himself in some nice comfy attire that he dug out of his bags. Before leaving his room, he quickly snatched up the piece of silk that had been previously used to keep the swelling down on his hand and tied it around his wrist as a bracelet of sorts.

Something about it made him feel warm inside, like it was a good-luck charm that Genji had gifted him. He knew very well it was just for the sake of his injury, but it felt way more personal than that for some reason. Lucio had kept it close to him all week with no questions from any of the other agents that resided within the walls of the watchpoint. He wouldn’t know how to explain the new accessory without it seeming weird to either himself or them to begin with. He was lucky that nobody seemed to notice or really even care.

Speaking of _agents_ , two newer ones had joined them that he had a slight interest in getting to know because, well, who doesn’t want to learn about the people you’re working with? It’d be weird if he didn’t try, honestly. 

One of the agents was Mei-Ling Zhou, a scientist who apparently worked with the eco side of Overwatch, specifically being stationed in the Antarctic to monitor the environmental fluctuations with a team of scientists - at least, that’s what Angela relayed to him. Every time he tried to talk to her, she would freeze up and that’s not talking about her not being able to say anything, she’d literally turn into a block of ice until he went away. It kind of made him worried that he had done something to offend her in some way even though he could swear he heard her listening to his albums from behind closed doors.

The other was an omnic named Echo. She was different from most omnics he’d met or seen - beyond just the way she was built, she seemed like she was constantly watching everyone and learning about them piece by piece. But even so, she seemed wildly interested with the world around her in an almost carefree kind of way. Every time he passed her or ran into her in the watchpoint, she smiled and greeted him all too excitedly. She was… terrifying to fight against, he had to admit; the type of power she had constantly had him on his toes, the mobility she had could easily rival his own, and when she turned into somebody else oh man… that’s when he knew to peace out.

They were both impressive additions to their cause, however as more agents arrived he had to wonder how secure the watchpoint really was and whether they were all just making themselves sitting ducks, staying in the same spot. He didn’t like to think about the possibility of their location getting into the wrong hands. Lucio sighed, shaking himself out of his less savory thoughts as he moved to the door, allowing it to slide open in front of him-

“Genji-” Lucio yelped, nearly choking on his own spit as he narrowly avoided walking right into him, “-man, don’t scare me like that, haha!”

“I apologize, I did not realize you were on your way out,” Genji hummed as he dropped the hand that had been seconds away from knocking on his door, “I understand that you are most likely still exhausted from this weeks training, but I wanted to ask you if you would like to go climbing with me today. As I have mentioned before, it can be very relaxing and-”

“You don’t gotta try and convince me,” Lucio quickly interjected, grinning from ear to ear, “besides, I had nothin’ planned today.”

Genji seemed to relax a little bit at that - truth be told, he had no idea if he was running Lucio ragged with all of the time he had spent with him in just the past two weeks between travelling to and from Lauterbrunnen to the training they’d all been undergoing. He was enjoying each second he got to spend with the DJ, however he was never sure if the feeling was mutual. Nevertheless, he stepped back from the door as he awaited for Lucio to emerge from his room with his skates on.

The idea of getting to see more in detail of how his equipment worked while showing him something that he used to visit frequently in his younger days as a part of Overwatch was almost a match made in heaven. Genji hadn’t been to the spot in mind since everything was shut down, though he distinctly remembered the cliff top clearing in his head, the way the air smelled, how the sun kissed every inch of the land ahead of him. Being alone there was one of the few things that brought him some peace in his darker days.

Now that he was a different man, it felt suitable to bring a new friend there and allow him to witness what he did.

Beyond that, he simply wanted to spend time with Lucio - there was just something about the DJ that offered him a sense of… comfort? He wasn’t entirely sure how to describe it. Genji could only say he felt much happier during the time he got to spend with the other, whether it be during training or simply sharing a short conversation before parting from one another. The past couple weeks had proven Lucio to be an interesting individual that Genji could admit only to himself he was having trouble fully understanding.

Once Lucio slipped back out of his room, Genji - attempting to contain the excitement that welled within his chest, threatening to burst from his cybernetic seams - led him out of the watchpoint. The ninja knew the directions like the back of his hand (to an extent), it was hard to forget a place you visited so many times in your youth. Any time they were ordered to take refuge at this particular watchpoint, Genji would always make a point to break off from his team for a few hours to simply visit this spot of his.

He found himself glancing down at Lucio every now and then as they travelled closely together, the sound of him humming quietly along with the subtle track that played from his skates catching his attention every now and then. They weren’t speaking much, only the quiet music playing filling the majority of the silence. It wasn’t something Genji noticed until that moment, especially considering how the musician and himself would always find something to quip about. It was by no means uncomfortable to him, but he couldn’t help but wonder why he couldn’t help but be distracted by it.

Maybe he just wanted to hear Lucio’s voice?

Genji quickly shook himself from his thoughts, licking his scarred lips a little bit as he allowed himself to relax and clear his mind once more. For now, he should just focus on the short journey ahead of them.

Their travel only took a little over twenty minutes, reaching the all-too steep rock face that the warrior recalled so vividly from his past. While the years of wear and tear from the weather that had beaten the rock down, it was still recognizable to him; the color of the stone, the shape of the rock, the crisp sound of a waterfall not too far from them, the smell of fauna growing not too far from them. It brought back memories, good and bad. The cliff itself was nearly seventy feet in height, causing one to almost uncomfortably crane their neck just so see some semblance of the top.

It was intimidating to think about climbing something so dangerous without the proper gear, however for Genji it was no problem whatsoever.

“Well?” Lucio piped up, pulling his attention, “what’re we waitin’ for?”

“Just wondering if you are still up to the task,” Genji hummed, a challenging smirk breaking over his face from beneath his headgear.

“I came all the way here, no backin’ out now,” the musician, seeming to almost sense the smirk, offered his own back, “if I fall, you’ll catch me, right?”

“If you are worried about losing your grip, I can carry you up if you prefer.”

“I-” Lucio’s mouth immediately snapped shut, a slight tinge of red dusing over his face.

Without saying another word, Lucio quickly began climbing the cliff while turning up his music to full blast. He was immediately desperate to escape that situation, the burning that rushed across his skin making him lightheaded for a split second. The temptation to give a cocky _yes_ plagued his mind, however knowing Genji the way he did, he probably would have taken it seriously. As impressive as it would have been to be carried by the cyborg, he didn’t think his heart would be able to take it.

The sound of Genji laughing down below him as soon as he started climbing hit his ears and he looked down at him, pouting a little bit. It didn’t take long for him to catch up however, finding purchase on seemingly thin air as he easily scaled the cliffside. Lucio couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of him, the way Genji moved was oddly entrancing to him as compared to his own staggered hops, turns, and shimmies.

“As much as I know you are a fan of races, Lucio,” Genji started as he grabbed onto a spot with one hand, allowing his body to turn to the other to face him as he spoke, “I don’t think asking to race in this particular situation would be wise of me, would it?”

“Aw come on-” Lucio’s head cocked off to the side, “-you probably know this way better than me, would it even be fair?”

“So you _are_ interested?”

“Well yeah…,” Lucio pouted a little bit, “but it’s not like it would be a fair matchup.”

“I suppose you are right… and here I was going to make a wager with you to make it all that much more exciting,” he shrugged a little bit before he began climbing, again?

“Wait, wait. Back up. What do you mean by wager?”

Genji couldn’t help but smile a little bit at Lucio’s curiosity.

“Perhaps whoever reaches the top first receives something from the other,” he mused as he glanced down at Lucio, who cocked his head slightly, “I was going to bet finally being able to hear more of your music if I were to reach the top first, seeing as to how you seem to be avoiding it as of late - specifically the music you claim had vocals.”

Pressing his tongue against his cheek as he stared up at the other, Lucio quickly bounced his way up the surface to rejoin him. It was kind of true, he _had_ been avoiding showing off the demos with his voice in them, mostly because he didn’t feel like they were entirely perfect yet. He hadn’t even shown his manager or relatives before he disappeared to join up with Overwatch. Right now, the only opinion on the tracks were his own and needless to say, he was definitely his own worst critic.

“So what do I get out of it?” Lucio questioned, side-eyeing the other.

“That is up to you, my friend,” Genji replied.

“How about you give me an IOU and I’ll think more on it when I do win.”

The playful tone that surfaced in Lucio’s voice caught Genji by surprise as he watched the musician lift his hand to turn up the blood pumping beats that played from his skates. Quickly, Lucio made sure to get a head start on his opponent, who took a moment to snap himself out of his slight stupor to quickly climb the cliff himself. He was all too aware that Genji could easily get an upper hand on him at any moment, the past week of training had been incredibly lucrative for learning about his teammates and everything they could do. _How_ they could do it was the only mystery to him.

But hey, if he asked everyone to spill their secrets, that would make it all lose the charm. He was satisfied simply being able to witness what they could do and how they used it to their advantage.

Genji was all too quick to catch up to the height he was at, causing him to quickly glance over at him. Lucio could swear he could feel the cocky smile that spread across the others face from behind his mask but it didn’t irritate him in the slightest, in fact it made a strange fluttering sensation rise inside of him. Lucio bit down on his bottom lip, looking away from him before he shifted his weight to abruptly grind across the rockface to a relatively close by surface where he took a brief moment to catch his breath.

The musician watched his opponent slow and look over at him, to which he just rolled his eyes at his concern and wasted no time getting back on track with their race. Lucio just needed a moment to himself, to let his mind settle before he got too distracted with the other and ended up screwing himself over in some way or another. He needed to get his head less in that area and more in the area of this current moment, if that made sense at all. Lucio didn’t even think that made sense to himself, his mind felt impossibly scrambled.

Lucio reached over to the silk wrapped around his wrist and let out a small sigh, the moment seeming to calm his nerves. It was just a friendly race with a friendly bet.

Just relax.

It didn’t take long for him to catch back up to Genji, pushing further past him until he was a good distance away. He didn’t dare look back at him, not only because he didn’t want to feel that oddly entertained aura that seemed to emanate from him… but also because he had no idea how high up they were at this point and he had no idea how his brain would handle that. He used to climb cliffs and buildings in Rio all the time, heights were no problem for him however this felt totally different to him.

The Summer wind rushing against his face and neck, the sound of his skates grinding and skidding over centuries old rock, the smell of nature surrounding him, everything enveloping his senses… the more he allowed this to be a soothing experience, the less the urge to win their race permeated his thoughts. Lucio’s mind cleared finally after what felt like ages, the stress that had been surrounding him dissipating almost instantly - from training to what he felt for his opponent seemed to completely melt away from his body as he just allowed what the world had to offer him to take hold.

A smile found its way across his face once more as his eyes momentarily fell shut, he breathed in the fresh air. He couldn’t recall why he had been so stressed, this was great.

Genji was right… this was actually pretty therapeutic.

When Lucio opened his eyes again, he found himself at the top of the rock face, hands pressed against the edge as he pulled himself onto it. He blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out how long it had taken him to reach the top as he turned himself around to sit at the edge of the cliff and look down. Immediately, he felt dizzy just looking at the distance between himself and the ground and quickly looked away to look up at the sky. The sound of Genji hefting himself up next to him and sitting down with a small breath escaping him as he vents whirred caused him to look over at him.

“You are better at this than I expected,” Genji said, pulling a smile from Lucio.

“Just admit it, you went easy on me,” he laughed a little bit, bumping shoulders with the ninja, “so I guess that means I get a future IOU.”

“You may think what you like, but I believe you triumphed over me in a very elegant fashion, I began to worry when you took a break only halfway up,” Genji hummed. “And yes, you do. I do not, however, have any way of assuring you that IOU but I will do my best to follow through with whatever you ask of me.”

Genji spoke with a smile in his voice as he stood up to marvel at the ground below them, his head tilting slightly before he turned around and froze.

“... That’s new.”

“What?”

Lucio quickly stood up to see what Genji was talking about, eyes baring witness to what seemed like nothing but an endless field of flowers. The rolling hills ahead of them were speckled and decorated with various colors ranging from light pinks and pastel yellows to deep violets as far as the eye could see. The varying types of trees that were dotted throughout the field stood tall and proud, their green color almost shining beneath the June sunlight as the mountains beyond perfectly framed the field as though it were a painting created by nothing short of an expert in their craft.

Genji stepped forward a little bit, reaching to the back of his headgear to remove it entirely as his eyes glanced around the greenery that surrounded them.

“The last time I was here, nothing could have even the smallest chance of growing after Null Sector troops had made it one of their bases of choice… after Overwatch drove them out I can only recall it being nothing but a plot of dry, lifeless dirt as far as the eye could see,” the ninja stepped closer before he knelt down to a patch of flowers, reaching down to pluck one from the dirt. “... I did not think nature could have a chance at reclaiming it…”

“It’s beautiful,” Lucio finally spoke up, pulling Genji’s attention, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Lucio started to roll forward on his skates before stopping and glancing down at them. He licked his lips before he knelt down to undo the clasps that kept them securely around his legs and stepped out of them, immediately losing several inches on his height as his bare feet met the grass. He knelt down beside Genji, the smile never disappearing from his face as his hands slowly slid over the fauna in front of them.

He had seen flowers before, don’t get him wrong; but he had never seen them in this multitude before. The colors, the shapes, the way they grew, the earthy but sweet scent they gave off - it was all such an incredibly new experience to him. In his favela, there were a few flower shops here and there but it was rare for them to be stocked with much of anything fresh or different. Living on the poorer side of Rio left his home with little to marvel at, especially after Vishkar rolled in and started calling the shots. The natural foliage that grew around his favela was far and few between, even as the corporation's building began pumping out toxins that simply left the environment with no chance.

After they drove them out, he had no idea if they would ever have a chance at blooming ever again.

But the sight before him welled a sensation of hope and excitement within him, the thought of the world rebounding and taking back the Earth felt incredible to the point where his mind could hardly wrap around it. Time would ultimately tell if nature could reclaim and regrow, this simply felt like a testament to that. Without a word, Lucio suddenly flopped himself into the flowers in front of him, rustling up a number of petals that flew off of them before laughing a little bit and rolling over onto his back.

Genji, however, couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Lucio now. He watched the other excitedly reach into the bed of flowers before them, plucking a couple from their stems as his smile only appeared to brighten more as he inspected them, turning them between his fingertips. His eyes travelled over Lucio’s frame, from petal covered dreadlocks all the way down to his mismatched legs. Something about the other in his entirety was more pleasing to gaze upon than any type of flower could ever dream to be.

Suddenly, Lucio sat back up, forcing Genji to look away from him before he was caught staring for too long.

“So, you wanna hear those demos?” Lucio chimed as he pulled his pack off of his shoulders, “you didn’t _win_ but… I've been puttin’ ‘em off for long enough, haven’t I?”

“I thought you did not want me to hear them?” Genji’s head cocked off to the side slightly as he returned his gaze to him.

“I mean… it’s not that I don’t want you to hear ‘em. It’s just… ahh, it’s hard to explain! Look, if I don’t showcase them to ya know, I ain’t ever gonna do it, so-!”

Lucio scrambled to begin scrolling through his music, his cheeks puffing out as his skin seemed to deepen in color. Genji couldn’t help but give a small chuckle as he scooted himself around to situate himself beside Lucio and reached out to slip his hand around the one that had been haphazardly moving through the air. The musician froze up, looking over at the other who offered a gentle smile.

“You don’t have to show me if you are not comfortable,” Genji spoke softly as his fingers intertwined with Lucio’s, “I understand that your work is very personal to you.”

“I…,” Lucio quickly looked away from him, swallowing the nervous lump that situated itself within his throat, “... I _want_ to show you.”

“Then by all means,” Genji released his hand and Lucio immediately relaxed, “I am the last person to judge what you have to show me.”

The DJ licked his lips, taking in a deep breath to calm himself - and his rapidly beating heart - down. Did Genji even understand the type of effect that sort of look, tone, and gesture had on people? The guy had to be out of his mind to just do something like that without causing some poor, fragile soul a heart attack… okay, that was a little dramatic of him, but the odd pain that shot through his chest, the chill that wracked his body, the butterflies that roused within his very core was all a bit much to happen all at once.

Quickly, Lucio found the specific demo album he had been searching for and turned up the music before he set his pack down on the grass behind them. He watched as Genji leaned back, closing his eyes as he listened closely to the music that played from him, the gentle smile on his face making Lucio’s heart practically melt at the sight. The Summer breeze that pushed past them washed away the colorful petals that decorated Lucio’s dreads and gently tousled Genji’s short, jetblack hair as the music that pumped from his packs speaker seemed to backlight the two of them.

Lucio smiled a little bit, the entire scene surrounding them seeming like nothing short of a happy fairytale ending where nothing could go wrong and nothing could break the ‘happily ever after.’ He almost expected something bad to happen, seeing as to how things had been nothing but generally calm all throughout his time with the newly rebonded Overwatch. It was starting to seem like nothing would happen and if it did, it wouldn’t be anything they couldn’t take care of.

He could get used to the life he had been living for the past couple of weeks, it offered him a strange sense of community and comodadry, one that he could compare to his home. Being able to meet everyone he had so far was an entirely new experience with each and every one of them, but oddly enough nothing seemed to compare to his time with Genji. Lucio, deep in thought, began picking and weaving together varying types of flowers idly as he listened to the music behind them and humming quietly along with the lyrics.

Lucio didn’t know why or how he had become so enthralled with Genji or how he suddenly became so attached to the warrior who could most likely cut him down without even breaking a sweat; but every moment he spent with him felt like he could live life happily just knowing him, regardless of anything that went incredibly wrong around him. It was crazy enough to think that he might have deeper feelings for him after only a couple weeks of time of knowing him, even crazier to think that he hadn’t felt this way for anyone else in the past so ignoring his emotions was an absolute no-go.

The more he tried to ignore it, the more apparent it was to him. He wanted to spend time with Genji, learn about him, his past, his likes, his dislikes, every little thing that made him tick - and he was meant to be the international superstar here that gets that sort of thing from everybody else. But it’d be a total lie to say that he didn’t get starstruck himself, it happened with not only Hana but Lena as well. From what he knew, Genji wasn’t even in the spotlight when it came to Overwatch, people hardly even knew if he existed as he only started working with the main crew when it began to fall apart. But even so, he couldn’t help but find Genji to be quite possibly one of the single most amazing, impressive, thoughtful, and kind people he had ever met.

He had really dug himself an incredibly deep hole, hadn’t he?

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he looked down at his hands to find a somewhat shoddily crafted flower crown in them consisting of a number of mismatched flowers and colors all weaved together in a way that seemed like they would fall apart at any moment. He laughed a little bit before he turned his attention to Genji, who was still peacefully listening to the music that played. Lucio paused for a moment, glancing from the flower crown to Genji and back at the crown, again then promptly reached over to place it on his head.

The warrior flinched, eyes shooting open as he reached up to touch at whatever had been placed on him with a confused look in his eyes.

“What-”

“Ta-daaa! You’re a flower king, now!” Lucio beamed as Genji offered him an incredulous look.

“... _‘flower king?’_ ”

“Because you got the crown, duh,” the musician grinned at him.

“I see… what does that make you, then?” Genji spoke with a timbre of amusement in his voice, “surely a king cannot rule without another by his side.”

“I-” Lucio practically choked at the comment, “I’m just your bard or something, I don’t know! Maybe ask Angela to be your queen.”

“Angela is not here, so I suppose I will have to ask the bard instead,” Genji offered a surprisingly smug grin.

“You’re on real thin ice there, my guy,” Lucio quirked an eyebrow at the comment, leaning back on his palms as he stuck his tongue out at him, pulling a chuckle from the other. 

Genji reached up to toy with the flower crown for a moment as he smiled a little bit at the flimsy structure of it. He pulled his hand away out of fear of it completely falling apart before he began picking some of the flowers around him.

“You haven’t made one before, have you?” Genji hummed before he shifted in the grass and took one of Lucio’s dreadlocks in his hands to begin weaving flowers around it, “when my brother and I were young, we would sneak out of Shimada castle and go out to a field where there would be many flowers like this one.”

Lucio stayed quiet as he listened to Genji speak, not at all minding the hands on his hair.

“As rare as it was to find in Hanamura, we considered it a spot of our own. My brother was not quite as impressed with it all as I was, he was constantly on the lookout for anyone who might be looking to bring us back, insisting to me that if we were caught it would be my own undoing,” Genji smiled warmly, “as a child I would often tease him by giving him crowns made of flowers whenever he would get overly paranoid about it all.”

“You and your brother sound like you’re close,” Lucio commented without much thought behind his words.

“... Not so much anymore,” the warrior’s smile dropped as he took another dreadlock to begin the same process, “I tried to reconcile with him before coming to the watchpoint we reside now, I was hoping he would join us… he did not seem very keen on the idea at all. Master still insists he may come around before it is too late and I am inclined to have the same positive outlook.”

Lucio was silent for a moment, his comment seeming to have struck a nerve in the other. As much as he wanted to know more about his relationship with his brother, prying didn’t seem like the right call right now.

“Sorry,” that was all he could bring himself to say.

“Don’t be,” Genji spoke, the smile returning, “it is not your fault and I have since come to terms with what happened between us.”

“That probably doesn’t make thinkin’ about it hurt any less though, huh?”

“... It is what I will have to live with, but I will not allow it to control who I am,” Genji hummed, “in my youth I would have said something much different.”

“Uuugh, you’re so cool,” Lucio sighed, pulling a confused noise from Genji, “you’re like a super cool, badass video game character who’s like… taken the role of a protagonist to a whole new level!”

The warrior was silent for a moment as the comparison sunk in and finally he couldn’t help but offer some laughter at the comment. Genji pulled a hand away to cover his mouth as he laughed, the flower crown on top of his head nearly knocking itself loose before he caught it before it could.

“You think so highly of me, I cannot say I don’t appreciate it,” Genji spoke once more, Lucio looking back at him to take in the warm smile that had found its way across his face.

Lucio couldn’t help but smile back at him before turning away once more to allow him continue weaving the flowers around his dreadlocks, the slight tug every now and then not even bothering him in the slightest. He allowed his mind to wander once more, thinking about the things Genji had told him, trying to visualize the small story he offered him. He had no idea what Genji’s brother was like, why they had such a horrible falling out - it was none of his business, after all… but he couldn’t help but wonder quietly to himself if there was anything he could to in the future to help them reconcile.

From what it sounded like, Genji was entirely more than happy to take his brother back into his life despite what happened between them however his brother seemed to have other plans. As much as he wanted to offer some assistance for the others family, there wasn’t much he could do, really. They would have to let time do what it does best and allow people to heal on their own terms.

It didn’t take long for Genji to finish decorating Lucio’s hair with the varying colors and types of flowers that now weaved securely around the thick dreadlocks. The musician himself had laid down in the grass once more to stare up at the sky, fluffy white clouds rolling and sailing lazily through the otherwise bright blue sky above them. Genji had joined him not too long after, seeming more than happy to simply close his eyes and listen to the music that still played behind them, tapping his fingers to the beats of each track against the cybernetic armor over his abdomen. This day, in the midst of the training-heavy week they had, was easily the most enjoyable time the both of them had had in what felt like forever.

While they were fully aware that it wouldn’t last, letting it play out for the time being was more than enough.


	10. Chapter 10

“We shouldn’t go based off intel from an anonymous source.”

Angela huffed, the sound of her holopad slamming against the surface of her desk. Winston was quiet for a moment, turning his gaze down to the floor. They’d been having this argument for the better part of an hour.

Earlier that morning, he had received a message from an - obviously - anonymous source, claiming that there would be a Talon attack on the relatively close by German city of Heilbronn, only an hour or two out by aircraft from their current position. The message only told him that it would be best if they showed up unless they wanted to ignore any innocent lives that might be taken; Winston was only able to take a guess that it must’ve been an operative not wanting to be directly involved with Overwatch but still wanted to show their support. After reading it, he didn’t feel right sitting idly by, thus he told Angela…

...Who clearly wasn’t thrilled by the idea of taking action so abruptly.

He could understand very well why she didn’t think it was such a wise idea to take up any information without being sure of anything on the horizon, however Winston couldn’t see many other ways of getting their intel or finding out where they needed to be without it being at just the right time. The scientist wasn’t fond of the idea of _dumb luck_ , to say the least. Though, he had to suppose it was dumb luck that someone decided to drop him the message rather than ignore possible harm to civilians. Winston took in a small breath before sighing, removing his glasses to attempt to wipe away any smudges on the lenses.

“Angela, I know you’re worried but-”

“ _But?_ Winston, we’ve only managed to get a handful of operatives on our side, most of which are not accustomed to combating in these scenarios,” she snapped, offering a halfhearted glare to the mammal, “I understand that our new agents have shown extremely promising results, but to throw them into something such as a terrorist attack from Talon after only a months worth of training? I don’t want to see them get hurt or worse.”

“What if this source is legitimate? What happens if Talon **does** attack and we could have been there to at the very least keep the damage to a minimum?” Winston retaliated, “Lena and Hana have been tinkering with the aircraft, they’ve managed to fix and improve it after years of just sitting. Lena can fly us out at a moments notice, even Echo could learn Lena’s expert capabilities, we could-”

“Winston…,” Angela sighed as she pushed her hands through her hair, “what happens if we lose an agent?”

Winston opened his mouth to speak once more after being cut off however it quickly snapped shut at the thought. She had been saying that quite a bit, that she was worried about losing an agent or one of their operatives becoming injured. He didn’t have an answer for it, he couldn’t find one even as he mulled over the topic and let the thought roll and stew in his mind for longer than it needed to. Overwatch agents, from what he remembered in his time and his service, became injured in one way or another. It was simply a part of the job description of being what is essentially a hero.

He watched so many of his friends endure so much over the years they served Overwatch, how much they suffered and how little they were allowed to care for themselves in their scarce amounts of downtime in efforts to protect the world around them… and then for the world to turn on them all in an instant, regardless of how they tried their best to keep the peace. Winston preferred not to think about it, all the lost time, every mistake, every beaten and bruised ally, every lost life of his dearest friends - he wouldn’t let it come to that all over, again.

“We won’t,” Winston stated firmly, “we know what we’re up against this time. We aren’t limited to small reconnaissance teams anymore, either. We’re more equipped now than we ever were back then.”

Angela stared at him, a look of confusion making its way into her eyes as she crossed her arms. The scientist could only offer her a small yet confident smile.

“Trust me, Angela. I’ll make sure everyone stays safe.”

A moment of silence passed before Angela let out a small sigh, moving her hand up to press it against her forehead. The entire idea left her heart racing in a panic, she didn’t want to send everyone out so soon on just a whim, but it didn’t seem like Winston was willing to budge. She knew more than anyone that he wanted to protect the world from oppressors like Talon, why else would he have called all of them to this old, unused watchpoint if not to pursue and stop the enemy once and for all?

They all had a lot to lose, but the world had so much more at stake. They were the only thing standing between peace and the anarchy that Talon wants to submit innocent lives to.

“Fine… fine, I’m done arguing about this. I’ll trust you, but if anything goes wrong, I am calling a retreat back to the aircraft as soon as it does,” Angela practically threw herself into her chair with an exasperated sigh. “How are we going to do this?”

“I’m glad you asked, I already have a few ideas in mind,” Winston spoke up once more, a newfound sense of enthusiasm in his voice.

A few hours had passed and Lucio had slipped out of his room after taking a nice hot shower after a long day of training, the artificial light that lined his room had already dipped to a vivid orange, telling him that it was already deep into the evening. He wasn’t entirely sure how long they’d gone at it for today, but his body didn’t seem to mind it anymore. In fact, he found himself having improved tenfold just from the last few sessions they all shared. The musician had found different ways to work with his team, even using different moves and coordinating attacks with all of them to push forward to whatever their objective might’ve been.

Working with everyone had been a blast, figuring out different combinations and tactics with every single person he’d be fighting with was even better. Lucio never knew how exhilarating it was to have more than just himself to rely on in a fight, especially now that things were much different than they were from their first training session. They didn’t take the first time around all that seriously and it showed, but now each and every one of them were going all in, no holding back whatsoever. While people got hurt here and then, it was nothing a little healing beat couldn’t fix.

Beyond that, he discovered an incredibly impressive way to use his music now that his new power source offered him so much more; it was something he dabbled with when he received the Vishkar technology, but it only ever really affected himself to begin with. Using his sonic amplifier and utilizing the hard light that the tech already offered on its own, he could create a massive barrier that sticks to himself and his allies for a little while. It did wonders in a fight - especially when Reinhardt decides to get frisky and knock all of them down with his massive hammer.

Lucio just enjoyed the synergy he could have with his team, it felt like it made it all worthwhile.

The sound of Tracer’s chronal accelerator hit his ears and he looked around for a moment in the hallway for a chance at spotting her before he skidded to a halt in front of him. He opened his mouth to greet her only to be immediately silenced by her over-enthusiastic voice prying in.

“Lucio, I was lookin’ for you everywhere, love! Winston called us all for a briefing,” she chimed before she quickly took his hand to lead him down the hall, “we were waitin’ on you but I guess ya didn’t hear yet, huh?”

“Whoa whoa, what do you mean by briefing? Is somethin’ happening?” Lucio managed to speak up as he stumbled forward, “like, I didn’t get anything-”

“Shoot, you did say you were gonna hit the shower, right? Ah, well, we have our first mission tomorrow!”

“Wait, so soon? I figured we wouldn’t be gettin’ into anything heavy for another couple of weeks,” Lucio’s head cocked off to the side as they moved down the stairs and down another corridor of the watchpoint, “not that I’m not excited to be doin’ stuff… it just feels pretty sudden, y’know?”

“Well, Winston mentioned he got some information that somethin’ big might be happenin’. Ah, you’ll get all the details in the meeting room, don’t worry too much.”

Lucio didn’t say anything else after that and just allowed himself to be led to the destination. Once there, Lena opened the door to a relatively large meeting room, a large table with what appeared to be a finicky, partially operating hologram display in the center. There was a varied seating arrangement around the room, clearly not enough for everyone participating in the briefing, but standing never killed anyone. Lena happily announced their arrival and finally released Lucio’s hand as she hopped over to what appeared to be the last seat at the table and happily sat herself in it.

Winston offered Lucio a wave to which he returned without faltering before he looked around the room and spotted Genji propped up against a wall not too far from the table itself. A small smile crept over his face and he made his way over to join the cyborg where he stood, receiving a slightly surprised greeting from him when he bumped shoulders with him. Lucio turned his attention to the table in the center of the room, watching various agents idly chat and ponder on what the meeting was about, what they would be doing, and whether it would be dangerous or not.

The more the musician thought about it, the more he realized he had no clue who or what they were up against. He was fully aware that Talon was the main threat, he knew that enough just from his own past situation with people closely related to the organization; however that didn’t mean he knew much about the specific people they’d have to duke it out with over the fate of the world. He only had very limited and public knowledge of what Overwatch set out to keep from destroying society as they all knew it. Something about it all sent a sick feeling through his chest all the way down to the pit of his stomach.

He watched as Angela fidgeted with the hologram display in front of them, the lights that created the image right before their eyes flickering and sputtering every now and then as it struggled to stay powered on. Before long, she managed to get it to display what appeared to be a cityscape, one that he didn’t entirely recognize at first glance. It was definitely a more modern one in comparison to the town they procured produce from and it was a bit of a relief to see something like that after what felt like forever. Lucio hated to admit it, but this sort of small mountain country life wasn’t entirely something he was used to.

Lucio’s life ever since he had freed his people had been nothing short of what you’d expect a celebrities life to be - tours, public appearances, signings, some parties here and there even if they weren’t really his scene, and a lot of big city life. It was exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time, it was hard to describe; he just knew every day he stepped out of wherever he might be living at the time, he made someone’s day a little brighter and that was more than enough for him. Though, it was definitely a nice break from it all to be here, helping rebuild Overwatch and be given a chance at making the world a safer place.

As Winston cleared his throat, it pulled Lucio from his thoughts, pulling his attention to the scientist who began speaking and relaying what they needed to know. He spoke firmly, concisely, almost as if this weren’t his first mission like this - well, it wasn’t, that much he should have known from the very beginning. The tension that filled the room as he went on about the details of their upcoming mission could be cut clean with a knife and served on a silver platter, everyone seemed to become much more serious as soon as what they were up against was uttered.

**Talon.**

The most Lucio was expecting for this mission was maybe some gang troubles, some separatists, maybe an idle threat here and there but this… for their first mission as an actual team all together? Lucio felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach at the thought as Winston went on about the dangers they could potentially face, how they all needed to work together and keep an eye on each other. He continued on about the types of operatives Talon worked with ranging from from the menial soldier to all out gatling gun equipped juggernauts that would tear them to shreds if they didn’t move quick enough to avoid their barrage.

He spoke of how worse comes to worse, they would send out their special operatives such as the one who forced Winston’s hand into calling anyone and everyone to aid him in his time of need we went by _Reaper_. However, the main call to retreat if they were unable to drive out the forces before it were too late would be any sort of sight on _Doomfist_. Lucio was fully aware of who that was, a man who could supposedly knock down a skyscraper with just one punch from his gauntlet gilded fist, someone you would tell your children about and make them afraid of the mere idea of him showing up in your hometown.

Doomfists of the past have always had varying stances on the world, some using the power of the gauntlet for good, others using it for their own personal gain. The current holder was definitely affiliated with the latter. As Winston went on about other threats that they may face during this mission, Lucio couldn’t help but turn his attention to the floor of the meeting room, his heart only seeming to sink more and more at the thought of all of this happening so abruptly.

It suddenly felt incredibly real.

He felt something nudge into his upper arm, causing him to flinch and snap his attention up to Genji who had been looking down at him. Lucio could almost feel the concern in his eyes from behind his visor, one that he could only offer a reassuring smile to though anyone who knew him well enough could easily tell that it was forced. The musician quickly turned his attention back to Winston, who began explaining teams and how they would be patrolling the city for any disturbances as well as going on about how Lena would call in to the local authorities to hopefully get them to keep civilians off the streets. He continued, explaining how there would be a ground team, a rooftops team, and an emergency retreat team that would also double as sky patrol.

Reinhardt, Brigitte, Mei, and Zenyatta were the ground team, their main job to patrol for any danger and keep any stray civilians out of harm's way.

Lena and Winston would be in the aircraft for any emergency escapes while Echo and Angela would be close by in the sky to keep an eye out for any enemy reinforcements.

Genji, Hana, and himself would be utilizing the rooftops to look out for snipers or ambush attacks.

Lucio was surprised to know he’d be working with the two agents he knew the best out of everyone there, though he had to suppose each team were put together depending on their strengths, weaknesses and synergies. He was relieved to be able to work with Hana and Genji, to say the least; they were both experts in their fields and working with them during training sessions, he had found many ways he could help them succeed in whatever their moves happened to be. He let out a small, hopefully unnoticeable sigh as he turned his gaze back down to the floor beneath his feet.

Though, no matter how Lucio attempted to mask his nerves, Genji took notice all too well in the shift in the DJ’s usually bright attitude. He was nervous, that much was more than obvious to him - anyone would be on their first mission like this. They weren’t supposed to begin making any moves until the end of the month, but it seemed as though they had little choice in the matter as Talon had forced their hand. Genji trusted Winston’s instincts in making an effort to move against any attacks or threats the organization may push forward, however he wasn’t entirely sure someone like Lucio was entirely ready for what might occur in their efforts to protect these lives.

As soon as Winston dismissed them and everyone began filing out of the room, Genji slyly took a hold of Lucio’s hand and quickly led him out of the room without saying a word. He heard the other let out a confused yelp as they slipped out of the room and down a more secluded hallway, making sure he didn’t see anyone going down the same way beforehand. The warrior had been so focused on locating a good spot that he hadn’t even noticed the one he was dragging along with him asking exactly what he was doing.

“Hey, Genji-” Lucio made an effort to call out, “-everything okay? You’re walkin’ pretty fast there, ha…”

Genji quickly stopped in his tracks, finally releasing the other man before he turned to look at him once more. He was quiet for a moment, his mind drawing a blank after several seconds before he caught himself.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?” Genji spoke, watching Lucio tense up, “it is okay to be nervous, this is your first assignment like this.”

“Ah… well, I mean… I didn’t think anything this heavy would come up this fast,” he quickly turned his attention to the floor.

“You have nothing to be worried about.” Genji hummed.

“Huh?”

“You do not have to be worried, Lucio,” he couldn’t help but smile a little bit at the confused look that overtook the DJ’s features, “I’ll be with you.”

“I know that,” Lucio chuckled a little bit as he rubbed at the back of his neck, “I trust you and Hana to help me out of a sticky situation, I’d do the same for you guys but…”

Genji watched as Lucio’s weight shifted from one foot to the other, his gaze tearing away from him once more to glue itself to the floor. He watched as his head tilted back slightly before his arm dropped back down to his side. Lucio still seemed to be putting on a brave face, but he wore his emotions on his sleeve and it was always easy to tell when he was bothered regardless of whether he wanted it to be or not. He couldn’t help but allow a quiet sigh to part his lips and he stepped forward to place his hand on Lucio’s shoulder to pull his attention back to him.

His free hand moved up to the back clasps of his visor to undo them and pull it off, offering Lucio a soft and sincere look. Genji took a step closer, holding the visor at his side and squeezed the others shoulder.

“I’ll keep you safe, you have my word, Lucio,” Genji spoke, “you’re important to me, I will not allow you to be harmed.”

He watched Lucio tense up, his dark skin seeming to flush as a reddish hue dusted over his face. The look tugged at the corners of Genji’s lips even more, his smile wide from behind the facemask that stayed promptly in place however his eyes brightened with the grin that found its way over his own features. Lucio laughed a little bit, then cleared his throat before he gripped tightly at the front of his shirt.

“You can’t just go around sayin’ stuff like that, you might make a guy start assumin’ things,” Lucio quipped in an attempt to still his pounding heart.

“I apologize,” the ninja chuckled, letting his hand slide down to his upper arm, “I can avoid bringing such topics up if that’s more comfortable for you.”

“No! No, not like that, I j-just mean-” he quickly bit his tongue before he got himself into trouble, “I appreciate it… knowin’ you got my back ‘n’ all.”

“Even if it were not a dangerous situation, I would want to keep an eye on you,” Genji mused, “as I said, you’re important to me.”

“You’re… important to me, too,” Lucio kept the lump that pushed its way into his throat at bay, “I can’t say I won’t be a little freaked out tomorrow but… knowin’ I’ll be able to have you and Hana with me will make it easier. I know it.”

“Chances are, it is an idle threat from Talon. It would not benefit them to simply attack a city without a goal, after all,” Genji pushed his visor back into its clasps.

Before he had a chance to properly take in the world around him with his visor back over his eyes, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his body into a tight embrace. It caught him off guard, caused his heart to leap in his chest, his breath seeming to slip from his lungs without warning. To say he didn’t anticipate this from Lucio was an understatement - that being said, it was nowhere near unwelcome. Genji hesitated for a moment, his mind racing to figure out how to react to the sudden hug before he simply wrapped his arms around the musicians smaller frame.

He smiled warmly from behind his mask. It had been an incredibly long time since he had contact like this, one that wasn’t impossibly abrupt and somewhat unwanted on his end. He was warm, calm, it filled his chest with a sensation he couldn’t seem to describe. This was something he had been looking for for such a long time, from someone exactly like Lucio. Every moment with Lucio was a never ending surprise.

Genji was always happy to see what would happen next.

“Thanks, Genji… I’m pumped for tomorrow! _Vamos pegar isso!_ ”

Lucio cheered before he released Genji, a bright smile on his face. Any and all nerves that had plagued him seemed to be completely dissipated now. He waved him a quick could buy before he happily hopped his way down the hallway. Genji waved back, his head cocking off to the side slightly as he watched the man’s usual demeanor return to him without much issue. It helped him relax, knowing he could help Lucio have some peace of mind for the moment. He did his best to convince him that everything would be okay and it seemed to work.

He just hoped he could keep himself convinced.


End file.
